


Doesn't Play Well With Others

by obsidians, Sakurablossomhime (cherrygirlprime)



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-09 19:45:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 53,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7814695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsidians/pseuds/obsidians, https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrygirlprime/pseuds/Sakurablossomhime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tifa Lockhart, a girl with her own emotional scarring, is a new Shinra social worker who is assigned the cantankerous former General Sephiroth as a client, who is in a type of witness protection along with two other Hojo lab survivours. Will love prevail before they kill each other? Co-written with Sakurablossomhime, a new chapter will be released every Friday. M for later chapters</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no money from writing these stories.

Tifa felt nervous as she got ready for her first day on the job as a Shinra Social Worker. The ink was barely dry on her certificate and she had gotten hired right away and felt proud of herself for this fact. All those nights attending night school while working in the typing pool had been worth it!

Well aware that she looked years younger than her actual age of twenty-six, she dressed to look every bit the young professional she was. Her long, long brown hair had been bound up into a tight bun in back of her neck, drawing attention to her large dark brown eyes and dark lashes. She wore no makeup on her pretty heart-shaped face but pale pink lip gloss on her full lips, it serving its purpose more than enough with her natural beauty.

The brand new outfit she had bought for her first day consisted of a light grey business suit with a skirt the reached mid thigh on her, a pair of pale pink nylons and matching ruffled blouse and a pair of medium height light grey suede pumps. She got dressed and added a pair of pearl stud earrings and was pleased by her new look, she thought she looked every inch the professional social worker as she was stepping into the world to be that today.

She petted her cat, Ms. Snazzypants, goodbye and gave her teddy bear a lingering hug goodbye and a kiss

"I'll be home as soon as I can" she promised to nothing and everything that mattered to her in her world in her home. She got into her car and drove in for her first day at the office.

She felt a juvenile sense of excitement go through her, to have to put her purse and lunch through an x-ray machine and to go through a security checkpoint herself. She caught a glass elevator to the floor above. She walked out into grand waiting area that connected to the office of her destination and said the words she had been rehearsing all morning to the receptionist: "I'm Tifa Lockhart, I'm the new social worker" she said giving her a confident smile.

"Please take a seat, the social worker director will come to get you and show you around" the young woman, Elena, as her plaque dictated, had almost finished stating when the door flew open and a balding middle aged man came out, followed by a handsome blond man wearing a white suit, " Palmer, you can't quit, you work so well with him!" the young man called after the older man.

"Sorry, I but I refuse to deal with that asshole anymore. I would sooner get a job in an old age home where I have to change diapers all day long. That would be preferable to dealing with him" he said, throwing his badge at him.

The young man shook his head at the loss of another good social worker who was simply not strong enough, patient enough, or just honestly didn't have to take that shit and the man knew it. He looked at Elena his administrative assistant seeing his feelings reflected but noted the other person in the room. His sharp, ice blue eyes landed on a vision and immediately he started scheming, hoping that this was the new worker.

"Are you the new worker perhaps?" the blonde asked curiously and deviously, his mind going a mile a minute.

"Yes, I'm Tifa Lockhart the new social worker" she stammered recognizing immediately who he was. Rufus Shinra himself was speaking to her on her first day of the job!

"Social worker, you don't say? Great, come with me" he insisted and she could only exchange looks of surprise with the receptionist and proceeded into the large office, while completely missing the cat that got the cream look that Rufus in all his smug glory had given to his receptionist, following Tifa into his office.

"Would you like some bourbon?" he asked her.

"It's eight thirty in the morning" she said.

"So we'll put it in some coffee. I dare say I need your help. What just left is the social worker of a very special client and I need you to be his replacement" he said handing her the folder.

"General Sephiroth? But I thought he was dead?" she said and frowned when she could have sworn he mumbled "I wish" under his breath.

"No he's alive and kicking enough to be a pain in my ass. He's one of the survivors of the human experimentation fiasco that my father condoned. It has been proven that he was under the influence of…something that was added to his DNA from birth, that caused him to have a temporary lapse of…sanity. Well there are three known survivors and all of them have been well paid off to live quietly. However, one of the conditions of their pay off is that we are allowed to monitor them, for their mental stability and continued support of course, nothing more. The other two don't have a problem but the ex-General is very...temperamental about this. What do you know of him?" he asked her.

"Not much" Tifa said with a blush, not wanting to mention that he'd heralded in her puberty and she'd taken up being been president of his fan club and had kissed a life sized poster of him good morning and good night each day.

"He's an asshole. He has no time for people he feels are not at his intellectual level. He has almost no personality to speak of; no social skills worth mentioning. If you look up the word arrogant in the dictionary, you will find his smugly smiling picture there. He's demanding and thinks us mere humans were put here to serve him. Those are just his good qualities" he said. "Every single of his social workers have quit. Palmer had been the longest to last a month" he explained.

"But I thought that as a social worker, I would be helping the elderly and young children?" she said in confusion.

"And you will, but for now I need you to make a visit to him and get a report from him. Can I count on you for that?" he asked her.

"Of course, I look forward to meeting him" she said enthusiastically.

"Before you go, there are a couple of things you should know. He is not your friend and don't try and make him one; it won't work. Don't let him get under your skin, he can be very manipulative. Finally, he doesn't like to be touched, so don't under any circumstances" he said.

"Come on, how bad can he be? I'll go get your report and be back by lunch" she promised him and could have sworn he muttered "if she only knew" to which she focused a peculiar gaze on the man again to which only Rufus smugly smiled himself, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Once the young woman had left his office, Rufus gather up his PHS and quickly dialed a number in rapid succession, speaking when the voice greeted him at the other end of the line. "I do believe we have found the dear General a prettier chew toy this time. Maybe he will even keep this one longer based on that fact" Rufus said with mirth in his voice which turned into a chuckle then an all-out laugh at the young woman's misfortune he'd caused and he drank his bourbon once more, ending the call on his PHS and pleased with himself.

Tifa drove her car towards the address her GPS gave her while singing at the top of her lungs to one of her favorite songs and then frowned when her car seemed to be limping and pulled over and got out and noticed that not one, but two tires seemed to be deflating. She looked in her trunk, and sure enough she only had one spare tire.

She pulled out her PHS, no signal. She looked at the mud on the road and her new shoes and started walking in the direction of the grey stone manor house that was already visible. She had been walking for fifteen minutes when she heard a car coming and turned around to try and signal them, but the large black truck didn't stop. In fact, it seemed to speed up. In its haste past her, the tires hit a pothole full of muddied water and splashed it all over her.

She blinked in surprise and looked down at her ruined suit and shook her fist at the truck and could have sworn that a swath of long pale silver hair blew out of the window as if the driver had been looking back at her.

She was livid when she arrived at the house, but fought her temper down when she knocked at the door again and again and again for ten minutes. When the door opened, there in all his godliness stood the real Sephiroth at the opened door. Tifa had been knocking for so long she had almost knocked right into his actual chest with her small fist.

"Come in" he said without so much as a greeting or question about her appearance, turning away from the entrance, hair swaying after him like a silver veil.

"Hello I'm Tifa Lockhart, I have been appointed as your new social worker" she said holding out her hand and he just stared down at it like she was offering him a dead bug and back to her face with his unnerving, yet unusual eyes and remembered about the no touching thing and let her hand drop.

"I don't care. Where's Palmer?" he asked her impatiently.

"He decided to change careers" she said.

"So they sent a girl instead? What are you, twelve?" he asked her as he turned away again, intent on walking her back to his entry door and putting her right back outside again. Something about her being a 'her' intimidated him more. He didn't do intimidation.

"I'm twenty-six and a fully qualified social worker" she said in irritation.

He suddenly turned back to study her. She was struck by his physical, yet masculine beauty as they both silently sized each other up.

He wore a pair of faded blue jeans and some kind of button up shirt but that didn't detract from his unique looks and well developed body that her teenaged inner self imagined naughty things to do with.

"Only freshly graduated I would wager based on how you're over dressed for the job. I would also guess that you're single and probably have your profile on dating sites. You are an optimist and always try to see the best in people. You became a social worker because you want to help people. You recently moved to the area and live alone expect for a cat. Am I close?" he asked her looking at her head on with an arrogant look on his face, like he'd told her the secret of life.

"How did you know all that?" she asked him, slightly flustered by his asshat antics but didn't let it show. Rufus had said he was manipulative and he wasn't lying, she could tell.

"I've had a lot of social workers. I bet you have a romance novel in your purse" he said.

"I do not" she said, though she did, shutting his analysis down because it was uncanny and it was unnerving. "Now I'm here to-"

"To keep track of me" he said leaning against the wall and folding his arms across his powerful chest.

"That is not the case" she said, her anger still not in check for some reason and trying to linger under the surface though he'd not really done too much, unless you count playing 'open book reading' of her life status. Was she really that transparent?

"Ask me your questions and I'll translate them for you" he said, taking a seat in a large chair and indicating to another one. "I'm sorry where are my manners, can I get you something to drink?" he suddenly asked her.

"I'll have a pink lady" she said, feeling annoyed with him.

"With the egg white or without?" he smoothly asked her.

"I was joking. What do you have with fizz it in?" she asked him.

"Nothing, I don't like carbonated drinks. Unsweetened grapefruit or orange juice?" he returned.

"Orange juice" she requested.

"I just finished the carton" he returned.

"Grapefruit it is" she agreed and tried not to gag on it, noticing he didn't offer up any sugar.

She did her interview and he answered the questions as briefly as possible and she tried not to stare too hard at him. She did wonder why so many of the questions seemed to focus on him dating or planning to date.

"You can stop, just tell them that I'm still single and don't expect that to change" he interrupted, gesturing with one of his large hands lifted in the air towards her.

"Why would Shinra be concerned about that?" she asked low to herself before she caught herself.

"They want to monitor us to make sure us "experiments" don't attempt to breed with you 'normal people'" he said.

"What?" she said.

"Didn't they tell you about the alien DNA that was added to our own? Well expect for Vincent. They did other things to wreck him to make him unfit for society like the rest of us. After all, having a form of physical manifestation of multiple personality disorder where you transform into said personalities, even if one is a baby behemoth, a chain-saw wielding sociopath, monster made of other parts of people, oh and a Demi-Demon is bad for the public eye. Oh and not aging is frowned upon as well" he said to her facetiously.

"Alien DNA, physical multiple personality disorder transformation… what are you talking about?" she asked him.

"Oh I suppose you don't know about my wings, one physical and one ether?" he asked her.

"Wings? Can I touch them?" she asked him before she caught herself.

"No you may not. You really don't know about any of this?" he looked at her with his brows drawn down in confusion, his stare intense.

"No. I know about the human testing from your birth, that you were a great General, exploited, and about your...breakdown subsequently, but that is it" she said in all honesty her head bowing in slight in embarrassment under his continued intense stare.

"Okay. I'll give it to you, if very briefly. Myself and others lived in a lab most of our lives being human guinea pigs to the person who was apparently my father. I know little about my mother other then she consented to it and her name was Lucrecia Crescent, the surname I took once I was granted citizenship as there wasn't even a birth certificate. I was raised to be a weapon of war and nothing more. I was given to SOLDIER at the age of fourteen, you know the rest I suppose. I had my melt down. Here's what you don't know. I was found alive and well three years ago and Rufus didn't want to have to court martial me because he knew that his father was just as reprehensible as my own in a lot of ways. So he made amends in offering me the same deal he offered to the other Hojo survivors: that he pays me off, establishes myself as a citizen, and make sure I have all money owed to me as long as I live out my days quietly. I took his bribe money, he got me my pension from SOLDIER and used DNA to establish me as heir to my mother's estate. There are two other survivors. There were more but they were killed on the day the news about us went public" he explained.

"That's horrible" she as her faced conveyed great sadness for them all, even the ones that had been slaughtered.

"It's life" he said dismissively, trying to disregard the way her face was showing that raw of emotions for him and the others made his chest feel tight. What was that?

"Do you see the others?" she asked him genuinely curious.

"Once in a while. It's not like our gatherings prompt happy memories." he said to the point.

"Don't you get lonely?" she asked him.

"No, why should I? I cherish my own company and have my books. What else do I need?" he answered, looking at her quizzically, quirking a thin, elegant eyebrow at her.

"Companionship!" she said not even knowing she was being excitable while trying to make her point." Maybe a girlfriend or a boyfriend. The possibly of a spouse, or even just a friend. Someone to spend time with, to give you comfort when times are tough or share the joys in life with" she said winding down realizing he was looking at her confused again as if it was the most absurd thing in the world.

Her speech was making him feel inadequate again and with it, his ire was rising. He didn't know anything about these things she spoke of, so he went with the one thing he was comfortable in again: being condescending.

"Oh you're a hopeless romantic? I was right about you. You probably have a man picked out as your future husband, know how many children you will have and the names for them" he said flippantly.

"You couldn't be more wrong but what's wrong with that? It's called being normal" she said and this gave him pause at how she suddenly sounded so bitter. Though they'd just met it just didn't seem right on her.

"I'm not what anyone would call normal, besides I'm not that interested in your life anyway" he said indifferently, having already categorized the girl as yet another do-gooder, bleeding heart type that would be easy to work with, but not that stimulating a conversationalist and wondered why the educational standards to become a social worker weren't more stringent. "We're done here" he said with a finality that caused her to gather up her notes and stand up.

"I need you to sign the report" she said shifting her articles in her hand, remembering that she was still soiled from the earlier pothole adventure, dried dirt and bits flaking onto his floor and he stared at her and then down to the bits and then back at her.

"Do you have a pen then?" he said holding out his hand.

She fished around in her purse and handed him the first round object her hand encountered and put it into his hand. She blanched when she realized half a second too late that she had handed him a tampon. He didn't pay attention and went to put it to paper and then frowned when he studied what he held, having never heard of the brand name Playtex before and wondered at the words 'gentle glide' written on the small package.

"Is this some type of birth control?" he asked her, having never encountered a tampon before.

"You could say that" she said with a flaming face, assuming he was joking and not just naive when it came to the opposite gender to him and quickly replaced her feminine hygiene product with a pen and he signed it and handed her the document, sparing her a slight glance before striding significantly towards the door.

"Can I get a ride back to my car? I encountered two flat tires and that is also why I am a mess" she asked him and could have sworn from his slight smirk that he was enjoying how she had to humble herself like this.

"No need, I called the local garage when I saw you on the road, it should be here any minute" he said.

"So you saw me and didn't offer assistance?" she snapped in irritation.

"I wanted to make certain I was on time for our interview" he said with a shrug.

"Thank you for your time" she said, controlling her anger that had cooled and now was back with a vengeance as she left, eager to be on her way. He was such a blowhard!

"I'll be seeing you soon" he politely said, giving her a tight smile as if unaccustomed to doing so even offering a slight wave of his hand.

"I understand that I am only required to take a report once a month" she said.

"You never know" he said and shut the door without a single goodbye and this caused Tifa wonder what he meant as she stood outside the forbidding manor house that was just as ominous looking as its owner.

She was angry and frustrated and upset that her teen hood idol had was nothing more than an obnoxious asshole. How had she ever thought him a benevolent angel? He was atrocious! She had a horrible first day of what she thought would be her new life and now her new outfit was ruined and she would be late getting home.

She stood on the steps and sure enough her little car drew up and she pulled out her check book. "How much do I owe you?" she asked him.

"The General already paid, he apologizes but the blowouts might have been caused by something on his driveway" he said giving her keys.

"I bet it was" and roared of his driveway, relieved to be rid of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Tifa fumed as she picked burrs off of her cashmere sweater that she had just bought at a severe discount from a thrift shop and looked down at her scuffed patent leather mary jane shoes and glared at the powerful back of Sephiroth. Even the loose drape of his shirt couldn't conceal his muscles as they shifted while he rhythmically pounded a nail into the fence post.

"Why did we have to meet here again exactly?" she asked perturbed. This was the third time she was here this week as apparently, being the social worker of General Sephiroth meant she was the courier of all government correspondence between Rufus and Sephiroth and was forced to wonder if they had never heard of email. However, the ex-general always seemed to be located on some obscure part of his property and he helpfully left a PHS for her that told her of his location via GPS tracking on his own PHS while, she stumbled through fields, forests, and various other pieces of landscape to get to him, normally ruining her outfit that day in the process.

He spared her a glance over his shoulder.

"I have to fix this fence, that's why here" he said, as forthcoming as ever.

She had hoped that he would start to warm to her cheerful nature in time but it didn't seem to be working. He remained as cold, distant, and aloof as ever as if he only tolerated her and didn't even thank her for having to traverse the length of his property many times to bring him his important papers. Sometimes he would pause in the middle of the activity and wouldn't even speak with her. He would make her wait while he read each and every line, signed the document, and wordless handed it to her, dismissing her with an imperious wave of his hand.

She still thought him an asshole, but now knew of his life story and had great sympathy for the severely emotionally damaged man. After the fiasco of her first visit that she had been so ill prepared for, having not even been assigned an office before being sent into the field, she decided to rectify that mistake and started by reading his file cover to cover. Finding references to footage of experiments done, she went directly to Rufus and requested whatever remained.

She forced herself to watch each bone chilling second where Sephiroth as a cheerful young child had started to have his soft young body enhanced and she sobbed when he did. She saw the sweet child grow to a sullen young man with haunted eyes, his neutral expression a mirror of the man he would become. She watched him in the lab, in the room that he seemed to have resided in most of his underground life and training to become the SOLDIER he would be. She watched him become cockier and arrogant, more confidence and more cold until it seemed that all emotion had been drained from him.

She recognized it as a weak coping mechanism that even now, when faced with something uncomfortable or uncertain, was his modus operandi. He was like a robot. Tifa mourned that he had never had a chance. If someone had taken him from that horrible place and just cared for him as a child, who knows what he could have be today, even if he'd been experimented on in vitro. His intelligence level was off the charts. He could have been a doctor or even a scientist like his parents. Imagine the cures and wonders that could have come about, instead of notches on his ridiculously long nodachi, Masamune from seeing war…at aged 14.

Next she researched his mother and discovered that he was descended from minor royalty on her side and put together a file of her life, achievements, papers she wrote, awards and her family tree. Of his father, she found little information on. Not even a first name to go with the last name and suspected that Professor Hojo wasn't even his real name. This is why he took his mother's last name. That and she was moderately less reprehensible of the two parents.

Finally, she called Rufus and made a special request and his helicopter took her to the sight where a young man named Reno took her into the remains of a building. Based on the footage, she led Reno to the room where Sephiroth has spent half of his wrenched existence. The local teenagers have not been idle in their pursuit of teenaged rebellion due to the liquor bottles, graffiti, and used condoms that littered the floor, yet there sat a single hospital bed bolted to the floor there, along with the ominously dangling restraints.

She lay down on it. "I want you to do up the cuffs, close the door and leave me here for five minutes" she requested of him and he did.

The dark enclosed her and made her nervous, she knew that at the age of thirteen, Sephiroth had been five foot, eight inches; five inches taller than her own height of five foot, three inches. The dark seemed anything but friendly as she tried to get out of the cuffs, it was like something loomed over her, ready to pounce. She could finally hear Reno's footsteps and his light shining under the door and was relieved when he came to release her. She realized she had barely lasted for five minutes in his room and he had been there since he was a baby! Also that the person coming to get him wouldn't have been a benevolent young man fulfilling a request, but someone doing further harm to him. No wonder he had to protect himself by becoming the emotionless, controlled man he was. She could now see where all of this attributed to his eventual mental breakdown. It was all very tragic and very preventable.

Of course, this venture into his life she told him nothing about, feeling certain he felt intensely private about this area of his life. However, the file about his family she had decided to give to him when she got to know him a little better so he might learn more about his real family. Thinking perhaps it would make him feel a little less of a thing and instead, more human despite his unique traits. Honestly, he wasn't that different looking from most other men once you got past his paleness, unusual eyes, and hair color. He was beautiful specimen of manhood in fact but was dull and emotionally stunted. Nonetheless, she could see a female liking him ascetically, certainly her fifteen-year-old inner self would have been staring at him in worship, while her twenty-six-year-old self wanted to get a hold of his hammer and bash his head in for the ruin of yet another part of her already limited wardrobe. She made a mental note to ask Rufus for a clothing allowance. Taking on Sephiroth as a client was hazardous to her wardrobe.

"Are you almost done? Perhaps you can give me a ride back to my car on your ATV?" she hopefully suggested. She was hot and hungry and had to face going back to the office to try and straighten herself out.

He looked at her in her office attire and pumps and couldn't resist being him. "I won't be finished for hours yet. You should learn to dress appropriately for when you come here. Work boots, jeans, shorts, and some sort of causal shirt are better suited than your current attire" he admonished her in jest, if nothing more to see her scowl openly at him.

"I work in an office; I'm not a ranch hand. I can't show up looking like that and I never know when I'm going to get a "will you be a dear?" message from Rufus and come here to go hiking across your property. I'm not here for my health, I go to the gym four nights a week for that" she said through gritted teeth, refusing to sink to his level though her brown eyes shone angrily.

"I work out every day, for four hours a day" he said nonchalantly.

"Well not all of us have all the time in the world, some of us have to work for a living and I do have other clients" she pointed out. "Perhaps if we can just meet when you are at your home, even if it has to be after business hours? It would be more convenient for me" she suggested.

"Sorry, I'm a busy man" he said secretly thrilled at the response he was getting out of her. She was hopping mad. Wait, why world should he care about her emotional outbursts?

"Fine, nice to see you again, General" she said with a spiteful salute that he returned with a smirk, she began making her way awkwardly across a large, freshly plowed field.

He watched in amusement and realized he was starting to like her fiery spirit. He idly wondered if that was what that feeling was in his chest every time she came to see him, every time she laid eyes on him, every time she so much as spoke to him. The feeling was disconcerting and also wanted all the same, that he felt a tugging at his chest. It was a strange feeling that he gladly willed to bask in with no issue. She refused to show him her irritation, keeping her anger at him under restraints, and he found her control intriguing. He had never had a young female social worker before. He had never had a female anything since he was a small child and the assistants were a gil a bushel.

All the others had been middle aged men that he'd enjoyed toying with, but Miss Lockhart was another kettle of fish all together. For one thing, she was attractive and obviously in good shape. Although he was sure the she had probably read somewhere that ruffled blouses helped conceal a prominent bosom, it certainly didn't work. That she fascinated him unsettled him a little. He paid it little regard. He would continue to do as he pleased.

Weeks went by without getting more than almost daily phone calls from Sephiroth. Rufus had apparently given him, her personal PHS number to her annoyance. They were simply messages to be convened to various government departments as he was too important to present them himself.

When her phone rang, Rufus again had requested she bring some documents by the Manor House. She sighed and drove there to find his spare PHS locked onto his present coordinates sitting on his porch. She picked it up and went to her car and pulled out her boots. She had sent a blessing her mother that she had never thrown a thing away when she found them in the attic, the doc martin boots were a relic of her teenaged life, but were still in great shape and still fit her. Removing her favourite black PVC pumps, she pulled on the socks she had brought with her and started following the asshole's trail. It gave her pause to find him fishing on a riverbank…shirtless.

Her brain stuttered and she simply said the first thing that came to mind to try to will away her inner teenager's response to the visual. She was sure she had bright red cheeks

I didn't know you fished" she said, her voice coming out airy.

"It's something that I'm just trying" he explained, glancing back at her over his one of his broad shoulders. "So far it's rather dull."

"It's better if you fish early in the morning. What sort of bait are you using or are you using a lure?" she asked him, now sure she could proceed to be near him as her heart had climbed back down out of her throat, if barely.

"I'm using worms. You know about fishing?" he said with surprise, sounding intrigued by the idea and not fooled for a moment to her earlier blushing at his display. Good.

He paused for a second to ponder why that was such a good thing, but she had captured his attention once again with her responding readily.

"My father and I used to go fishing all the time" she mused. "I would say there should be trout in these waters at this time of the year, but you should be fishing over there. It is a better location." she said as she pointed to the better spot for him to be in, for a better catch.

"I bow to the master" he said, mock bowing to her while walking backwards, and eventually turning to take up the spot where she was pointing to earlier as she walked beside him. "I like your boots by the way, very 1990's."

He continued his silent activity but found himself studying her and looked away, feeling irked that he had been and concentrated on the slow moving river until he felt his pole bow.

"You caught one" she exclaimed and clapped her small hands together in happiness for him, but quickly frowned that he appeared to be trying to lift it out of the water.

"No you have to reel it in properly. Pull you rod up to ninety degrees to draw him closer and then back to forty-five and repeat it" she called and then without thinking, threw her arms around him to guide his hands as her father had many years back for her.

He froze to have her so close and registered her heavy chest pressing into his back...and dropped the pole.

"Sorry" she said more or less jumping back from him and with an agility that he wouldn't have thought her capable of, grabbed his net and ran into the water, grabbed his rod and neatly netted a good sized trout. "Got it" she said.

He looked at how her tasteful white skirt was soaked and she was standing waist deep in the river holding a wiggling fish in front of her floral print ruffled blouse and tried to choke it back, he really tried, but his laughter came roaring out of him until he had bend over to brace his hands on his knees to prevent himself from falling over.

Tifa couldn't believe what she was hearing until she looked down at herself and realized she still wore her office attire and started chuckling as well.

"Okay if you're through laughing at me, you can help me out" she said and he reached his hand out and did just that, looking away at how transparent her skirt was. She seemed to be wearing white panties and her legs seemed to go on for days.

"I think you should come to my place so we can find you some dry clothes" he said struggling not to look at the rounded cheeks of her pert bottom as she expertly removed the fish hook from the fish and handed it to him.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" he asked her aghast.

"Fillet it" she said.

"I don't know how" he said, now frowning.

"Then let's make a man out of you and I'll show you how" she said being far more whimsical around him then she normally was. He looked at her, starting to see what lay behind the prim ruffled blouses and high heeled pumps. The way she had moved into the water made him suspect she had martial arts training. Yes, there was clearly more to her than reached the eye.

He nearly laughed again when she joined him wearing a pair of his drawstring waist shorts and a t-shirt, both of which were ridiculously large on her. He coughed into his fist to play off his bark of a laugh.

She had tied the t-shirt into a knot on one side and her normally tightly wound bun had been undone and he was shocked by how long her hair was. It was nearly the same length as his own! She looked really different dressed so causally as she padded around his kitchen in her tiny bare feet, having no idea how alluring she looked.

"I thought you had to go back to the office" he said as she wielded the filleting knife he had bought with such skill as if born to it.

"I can't go like this. I called Rufus and told him that you have me scouring the beauty supply shops looking for your favourite brand of shampoo" she replied.

"I could make that a reality" he threatened, but with a slight grin in his face.

"Okay I need a frying pan and spices and a lemon" she said dismissing him in lieu of wanting to cook.

"For what?" he asked her.

"So I can cook this up" she said.

"You intend to eat it?" he said dubiously.

"We are going to eat it" she said and went into his fridge without asking permission and started pulling out whatever seemed to appeal to her.

"You can cook?" he asked her.

"Like a dream" she said. "And you?"

"I'm an adequate cook" he lied looking away for a moment then focused again on her, curious while she grated, peeled, sliced and diced, her movements quick and precise until his kitchen smelled in a heavenly way it never had before.

"Well, don't just stand there, set the table. Oh and find wine if you have it" she ordered him.

His silver brows shot up that she was issuing orders to him, but complied. The day was just too surreal for him not to.

"Sorry, I can't dress for dinner" she said laying a plate at the head of the table, not bothering to guess whose place was whose as she sat beside him and was almost shocked when he pushed in her chair for her.

"Red or white?" he asked her.

"I prefer red" she said.

"Me too" he said pouring some in the antique glasses that came with the place.

"A toast to your first attempt at fishing" she glibly said.

"I caught one didn't I?" he smoothly replied.

"Only after I stopped it from towing your rod down the river" she replied and he just rolled his eyes at her in a gesture so purely human from the normally stoic man that she chuckled.

Knowing that he wasn't much for conversation and with the wine going right to her head, she was soon telling him stories about her teenaged years, making certain to omit the one where she had tackle-hugged him and then ran away when she had saw him walking down the street.

He had seemed very startled when she did that and seemed to just avoid punching her when he realized she was harmless and female. Some things were too embarrassing to admit to.

"So I had managed to get my shirt on and told my boyfriend to hide my bra but got grounded anyway because a strap was sticking out of the hay in plain view when my father caught us" she told him.

"That would be a giveaway" he agreed, enjoying his meal and the company, he couldn't remember the last time he had a dining companion.

"Okay I told you an embarrassing story, your turn" she said.

"I didn't know there were rules before I listened to your story. Okay there was this one time that my friend Angeal had a girl over she wanted to take a shower, but I was already in there..." he said, liking how she cocked her head slightly when paying attention his story.

At the end of the night, she put on her clothes, now fresh from his dryer and handed him a file.

"What is this?" he asked her.

"It's what I could find out about your birth mother and what I could piece together about your father. I thought you would like to know more about your birth parents" she said and it was like his face slammed shut and he put it aside.

"I have no interest in knowing anything about either one of those disgusting people and who are you to pry into my personal history?" he demanded in a voice as cold as ice, yet his eyes flickering with emotion.

Oh no. Was that sadness and betrayal she saw in those depths? What had she done? She was only trying to help.

"I thought we could work together easier if I understood what you went through" she explained, feeling like she was under interrogation as his eyes bore into her own as the glow intensified the angrier he got.

"You thought wrong, how dare you pry into my past. It is private and you had no right" he snapped.

"I just wanted to get to know you, be your friend" she said.

"You could have asked and I could have saved you the effort. You and I will never be friends; you are my intellectual inferior. You are little more than a vapid airhead with nothing to talk about other than tales of being felt up by boys. You disgust me. Leave. I shall get you replaced by Rufus. You just ended your own career" he smoothly said, watching her flinch.

That was it! She knew that what she did was for him and him alone. How dare he think she was some inbred, country bumpkin whore being felt up by any old Tom, Dick, and Harry.

"You know what? I am not vapid, I am very intelligent, not that you ever bothered finding that out with your acting like I'm a glorified errand girl. You never bothered talking to me. You are cruel, cold and an asshat to boot. You sit around with nothing to do in your big house with only social workers for company when you desire it. You scoff at the idea of someone wanting to be with someone else, wanting love, when you're so lonely you don't know what to do with yourself. You've been handed a second chance at life and could do anything you want and all you did was bury yourself in your mini mansion like a living, dead corpse. You could go anyplace you want. You could travel, you could meet new friends, you could even find happiness with another person but all you do is hide. You're alive, act like it" she screamed at him.

"Oh and your life is so glamourous? You work in a job where you are not wanted. You keep on going on about love but are clearly alone. Tell me, who is this boy you got caught fooling around with by your father? You keep bringing him up, but never mention a name. Did he dump you?" he asked her.

"Fuck you, I hope that you have the most miserable life in existence and die alone" she yelled at him.

"Been there, done that" he shot back, his face impenetrable and watched while she wrenched her shoes on and her small car shot out of his driveway like a bullet off into the darkening night.

He wanted to feel superior as always when dealing with someone weaker but that feeling was being eclipsed by the tugging in his chest again. The feeling had changed. It was suffocating and it…was painful. What in Ifrit's balls was this? Instead of feeling smug, he felt...confused. Why had he reacted so strongly to her researching his life? As a social worker, it was her job to know her clients. He didn't want her to pity him he realized and decided to nip this in the bud.

This woman was clearly unbalancing him and he didn't like it. He resolved that he would asked Rufus to replace her and recommend that he assign her exclusively to working with children, she seemed to really like working with them based on what she told him. He looked at the folder that caused all the bother and couldn't resist opening it and read it.

Tifa was driving like a maniac and slight tipsy on wine. "You bastard. Who the hell do you think you are!" she raged, she as she fumbled with her PHS and looked down into her purse, when she looked up, she was wandering into the other lane and another car was coming at her, she swerved to miss it and the entire car flipped like a can of tuna and Tifa's world went black.

The police officer held Tifa's PHS, miraculously unscathed, as she was being in the loaded while unconscious into the ambulance as he talked to dispatch.

"I can't find any contact listed either Mom or Dad and she isn't wearing a wedding ring. Who should I contact?" he asked his partner.

"Look at the number that she calls or calls her the most and give them a call, that will either be the person she's dating or a close friend who can steer you in the right direction" she suggested.

He looked at her call log and noticed that one number called her at least once a day and dialed that person.

"Hello, do you know a Tifa Lockhart?" he asked the person who answered. "She's been injured in a car accident and is on her way to the Edge Memorial Hospital" he told the alarmed sounding male. "She should be okay-" he said, but Sephiroth has already hung up, grabbed his truck keys and was sprinting out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

_What the hell was he doing here?_ Sephiroth questioned himself as he sat in the hospital parking lot mystified. He had heard the words 'Tifa' and 'injured' and had ran in panic to her.

What the hell was going on? She was nothing to him, merely an annoyance in keeping with a deal he made. Yet he had almost flown to her side and he hadn't used his wings in three damnable years, in accordance to keeping discreet about his public appearances. So at the last second, rational thought had won out and he had driven as fast as inhumanly possible, in his case.

Yet here he was sans even a disguise. Normally he braided his hair and tucked it under a long coat and wore a cap pulled low on his brow when going out in public. He had refused to cut it or dye his hair to alter his appearance as he simply never had cut it and it had grown with him, so it would have been like losing a limb to him. However, in his favor, there were many people now wearing their hair like his, as someone had managed to create a dye that matched his own natural color exactly, therefore it was easy to pass himself off as an impersonator of himself the few times he had been caught out.

However, there was no way of properly disguising his eyes, but had had enough sense to have his sunglasses with him. Sure he would look a little odd wearing them at night, but would allow him to see how Tifa was. His concern for her irked him to no end, it was like a dog nipping at his heels that wouldn't go away.

If he was smart, he would drive away and get back to his life. He avoided hospital like the plague, they brought back too many painful memories. Instead he got out of his truck and locked it with a finality that sounds liked a cell door slamming shut to his ears and his own concern for the small woman drew him forth as he pulled open the door and went to the nurse's station and asked for her.

A gently smiling woman assured him that she had broken her leg and had bruises and contusions on her body, but could be released into his care to be taken home and she had been asking for him and he felt confused at this.

"Are you sure she was asking for me?" he asked the scrubs clad woman.

"Yes, you're Cloud aren't you?" she asked him. "I must say that the Sephiroth look works for you" she said in approval

He nodded acknowledgement of this.

"No, I'm...Steven Larson" he lied and he had fake id to prove it.

"Oh. Oh, I am sorry for being so forward then" she said slightly giggling, assuming that she had been talking to the patient's boyfriend and wondered if the woman had been cheating on him.

"She's my caseworker and she isn't really that forth coming about her social life" he explained.

"Oh that makes sense. Do you know how to contact him? She really wants to go home" the nurse said.

"Can I see her?" he asked her gently, dismissing the whole 'finding Cloud' business. That for some reason was getting on his nerves. Didn't she see him in front of her?

He was shown into a hospital room and he fought down an overwhelming urge to run screaming from the myriad of odors of antiseptic, bleach, and other nightmare inducing smells of his childhood but his stoic demeanor betrayed none of it.

Tifa lay on the bed wearing a hospital gown and was partially covered with hospital blankets, multiple tubing going here and there from the crook of her arm. He froze at the overall sight. She looked so pale with multiple cuts and bruises on her normally flawless skin and her leg in a large white cast that had been suspended from the ceiling in a stirrup of some fashion. It was horrible.

He leaned over her and she opened her eyes and his own bulged out of his head when she threw herself into his arms and sobbed. "Oh Sephiroth, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pried into your life."

He awkwardly patted her back, feeling his cheeks begin to heat up again. "It's okay, you were just doing your job, and I admit I did overreact. For that I am sorry. I never meant for all this-" he said gesturing to the whole of her and his hand fell away along with his died out voice. She shook her head into his chest furiously, debunking his blame and kept clinging to him like a barnacle, though he was torn as to whether he wanted her to release him or to remain close to him in her fragile state.

"Please get me out of here. They won't let me shower and I have blood all over me. I-I have it in my hair!" she practically begged him in a stoned sounding voice.

"What did you give her?" he asked the nurse as she checked her vitals and her I.V. drip.

"Demerol, she's pretty out of it" she said as she gave him a small, apologetic smile.

"Perhaps you will permit me to sign her out? She clearly doesn't want to be here" he suggested.

"Hers isn't a life threatening case. I will arrange for the paperwork. She obviously trusts you" the nurse said. "I'll get a pair of scrubs for you to take her home in" she said and walked away.

"Tifa, could you let go of me?" he asked to her in a strangled voice as in her moving, she was accidently rubbing other areas since she could only reach him around breastbone line down and clung to anything in the way, which was his whole lower half of his chest and the beginning of his pelvis region.

Finally, unhooked and dressed for success in her borrowed scrubs and having gotten the doctor's release paperwork, they were ready to go.

He had to carry her purse and pull the truck around as they wheeled her out. She struggled with her crutches, still dizzy from the pain killers and he took one look how petite she was and the height of his truck and without saying anything, lifted her into the front passenger seat and carefully did up her seatbelt and she smiled gratefully at this and they were on their way. She sleepily directed him to her place and he frowned at the tiny house. It looked like a doll house to him.

It was no bigger inside as he carried her in. It seemed to consist of a tiny dining room, kitchen and living room and he looked dubiously at the rather steep staircase that would probably lead to the washroom and whatever bedrooms were upstairs. He was proven right that she lived alone, her furniture was obviously cheap and in feminine colors and there was her cat. It was black and fluffy and had gold slit pupil eyes that it blinked lazily at him; he loathed it on sight.

He frowned at it, not liking cats because of how many times his eyes had been compared to those creatures and generally found them to be conniving.

She was shaky on her feet when he placed her down and had her leaning on him while he helped her arrange her crutches and watched as she awkwardly went towards the stairs, looking uncertainly at them.

"Can you help me up them?" she finally caved and asked him.

"Sure" he said, picking her up yet again.

He didn't understand it. He was averse to having people touch him and vice versa. Normally it felt like bugs crawling under his flesh where he was touched but for some reason, touching her didn't bother him. Not even earlier when she had put her arms around him, touching the bare flesh of his broad back and grabbed the fishing pole. He had been startled but other than that, she…felt fine.

He carried her up the narrow and treacherous looking staircase, mentally shaking his head along the way at how this was definitely not made for anyone ever injured and walked into what he assumed was her bedroom and sat her down on the double sized bed with its colorfully printed comforter. Normally bright colors were frowned upon by him, but she had black/white and mint green type motif going on and he secretly wondered if she didn't like him purely because of his pigmentation, which closely matched her chosen colour scheme.

He again sobered wondering how that thought crossed his mind. Who had even said she liked him?

He looked around it curiously. It was a small room with a chair by the bed, a single nightstand and a dresser and what appeared to be an altar. A black lace cloth draped a bench on which was a vase of roses, what appeared to be a school ring and a picture of a teenaged boy with a slim, but powerful frame, big blue eyes, a charming smile with just a hint of mischief and spiky blonde hair. He stood in front of a motorcycle. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at the picture and wondered why there was something familiar about the boy and then dismissed it, turning his attention back to the injured young woman in his care. Beside this picture was a blonde teddy bear with cloud embroidered onto its foot.

"Tifa who is Cloud?" he asked her at this sight.

"Cloud is... I really would rather not talk about him" she said.

"Okay, I understand about painful subjects. If there is a pharmacy around here? I can get you your pain medication" he offered.

"Right down the street. Could you pass my Teddy Bear?" she asked him, he nodded and wordlessly did so and she watched as he left.

"I love you. Don't worry. I'll be okay" she promised Cloud while she cuddled him.

"She's going to break her neck on those stairs" he muttered.

So what? She's not your responsibility his brain supplied.

"She's my..." he began to argue his case to his own mind.

She's nothing to you, just an insignificant cog in a system you despise his brain argued back.

"She's already hurt, you want her to break her neck now?" he fumed and noticed that his brain shut up at this, not having an answer apparently and then he blushed that he had been talking to himself and arguing with himself as well. He finally got the prescription and let himself into her place and went back up the stairs.

"You shouldn't be alone until you get used to the crutches" he said with a finality that surprised them both.

"But where will I go? I don't have any family or close friends to go to" she said, not guessing in a million years that the reclusive introvert was suggesting she come home with him.

"You will stay with me. There is a bedroom right beside the kitchen with its own bathroom. I'm not a great cook, but can look after your nutritional needs. You can stay up to a week if you want. I do have cable TV and plenty of books for you to read and if you want or need to go anywhere, I can drive you" he offered, feeling oddly intimidated by her startled expression.

"But you hate company" she blurted out in shock and awe at his proposal.

"True, but you are going to need some help adjusting and I'll bring you home whenever you wish. Feel free to bring your...bear" he dubiously said as he looked at it.

"But what about Ms. Snazzypants?" she asked him.

"Who?" he asked, assuming she meant the bear.

"My cat" she said looking at him like he was slow.

"Bring her with you" he said after a pause with a frown at her own vivacity.

"Okay" she agreed and she directed him to where he would find her suitcase and told him what to pack for her and she didn't notice how red his face got as he packed her colorful and lacy panties and bras, surprised at how small female underwear was.

He felt disturbed when he realized when packing, how limited her wardrobe was, that he had obviously depleted with his efforts of clothes ruining stick-it-the-man escapades that he enjoyed indulging in a juvenile way with his other case workers. They had all be well established in their professions with large salaries and clothing allowances, but she obviously didn't have either of those due to how modestly she seemed to live. Suddenly he felt uncharacteristically bad and resolved to make it up to her. Then he had to pack the cat, something he loathed to do and cursed as the creature scratched him as he shoved her into her carrier.

"I'm no fan of yours either" he retorted as she shot offended slit pupil eyes at him. Apparently cats were like babies and came with lots of luggage as the fussy cat also needed her toys, her bed and her food and water bowl and food bowl. Then another trip was required back to the drugstore to pick up kitty litter, after he almost gagged at the smell of stale kitty urine on emptying out her last batch. He had smelled latrines that had a more pleasant aroma.

Finally, everything was packed into the back seat of his four door truck and they were on the way. He blushed slightly as the rhythm of the truck put the exhausted girl to sleep and she drifted over to his side and settled on his shoulder with a soft sigh. He gently pushed her back when they got to his home and unloaded the truck and set everything up in "her" room. He distastefully released the hell cat into his home and left food and water for her in the kitchen and put the filled litter box in his spare pantry. Tifa murmured and woke up as he lifted her out of the truck. "Come on, let's get you to bed" he said.

"No I need to shower first; I need to get the blood off of me" she insisted struggling to stay awake.

"You should have one in the morning when you have a clearer head" he suggested.

"No there is blood on me, I can't stand the feeling, I need to shower." she said.

"I can run a bath for you and we can prop your leg up. Your cast, you can't get it wet" he said remembering what the nurse had told him.

"No, I can't abide baths. I want a shower" she insisted.

"But you're already unsteady on your feet" he objected.

"So help me then" she frantically said.

"Help you how?" he asked her, his eyes wild and confused.

"You have to help wash me. You can help hold me up" she said.

"Oh no, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Where is your modesty?" he asked her, feeling like a prude for even saying that.

"Please, I trust you" she said wrapping her tiny hand around his wrist.

"Trust me, you trust me?" he asked her, his voice sounding a touch too high.

"Of course" she said with a murmur.

He felt like his head was going to detonate as he adjusted the temperature and glanced at the girl seated on the toilet wearing only a pink terrycloth ruffled robe and he wore only his jeans and underwear. He couldn't believe what he was about to do as he knelt down and drew a bread bag over her cast, wrapped it in saran wrap and then taped the ends with medical tape. He tested the water, noting it wasn't too hot, as he worried about her unaugmented skin. He could take a lot of heat but was sure she couldn't.

"The water is ready" he said, looking at her in a way that she thought was slightly off. Was he blushing? Surely that was wasn't the case. In her mind the beautiful man only discreetly dated supermodels and certainly would never think about a dull creature like herself that way.

She blushed but said, "I'm ready" and dropped her robe and he looked away and turned around and lowered his own pants and underwear and stepped out of them as she looked at one of the nicest males' asses she had ever seen and then blushed when she realized how fixated on it she had been when he looked questioningly over his shoulder at her and she could swear he was blushing again.

"Come" he said trying to keep his genitals out of her line of sight while helping her into the shower at the same time. Still sleepy, the warm water lulled her while her arms were draped around his shoulders and she leaned trustingly against him.

Had she glanced up, she would have seen a very interested array of red staining the practically glowing cheeks of the Virgin General as he tried to think of the best way to wash her. Of course he had bathed his own body many times but he didn't have large, pillowy objects on his chest that nestled lovingly against his own chest, nor did he have a tiny, sculpted waistline where smooth lines showed softly feminine muscular definition. Nor did he have a dark triangle of pubic hair that led to long legs, nor a curvaceous rear with velvety looking cheeks. Yet, he would have to wash all of those.

He decided to start with her hair, that being neutral enough and himself being an expert in the proper way to wash extraordinary lengths of it and carefully started at the crown of her head with the shampoo and then worked it down to the ends of her hair and he blushed more when she moaned at this in a half asleep way. Then he knew that there was no more delaying the inevitable and took the soap and tried to use the surface as much as possible, but his skin still came into contact with her own as he touched a woman in places he could never imagine doing.

He had always been repulsed by even the idea of having another body touch his and the idea of entering another person's orifice made him want to vomit. Yet here he was touching female flesh and couldn't help noticing how soft her skin was and felt mortified when his own treacherous erection suddenly poked her in the belly.

"It's okay, it happens" she said in amusement when this happened, making his cheeks flame anew.

Finally, he reached the tip of her one foot by having her hold onto his shoulders while he bent down, getting a closer view of her lower half than he meant to. "Okay, we're done" he said in what he hoped was a normal sounding voice as he scooped up a towel and hastily wrapped her in it and set her on the bed with her hairbrush and quickly dried himself off and put his clothes back on.

"Which nightgown do you want to wear?" he asked her, hoping it to be a combination of flannel and barbed wire.

"I'd like my pink one" she said and he pulled it out of where he had unpacked it and handed it to her and turned around to let her dress.

"I'm decent" she said and seemed to be struggling to stay awake.

"You should get some rest" he said.

"My hair is wet" she said she pouted cutely when she gasped when a warm wind came out of nowhere and dried it. "But how?" she said, touching it.

"I can do other things beside materialize my wings, it was a spell from my body. I am- a natural with Materia. Simply a heated aero from an innate fire spell. It is harmless, but effective" he said.

Tifa's eyes shined and her smile was so genuine, you'd thought he'd said he was the Minerva's archangel in hiding.

"When do I get to see them" she asked him excitedly.

"Soon" he said.

"Can you tuck me in please?" she asked him.

"My pleasure" he agreed. After all, it seemed that his phobia about touching another person was at an end, at least when it came to her. He placed a couple of pillows under her cast and then tucked the blankets around her.

"Thank you for everything, Sephiroth" she said sleepily. "Will you pass me my teddy bear?" she asked him and he handed it to her, noticing how she cuddled it and kissed its plush cheek.

"Good night…Tifa" he said, flicking off the lights behind him and she quickly drifted into dreamland where he waited for her.

Suddenly in her dream, she was sixteen again and looked up at the sky and then turned to face the shirtless boy beside her. "I love you Cloud and I want to be with you in every possible way" she said.

He rolled onto his side too so they were almost touching.

"I love you too Tifa and of course I want to have sex with you, but you know my rules" he said with a cocky grin on his face, it was summer and his lean but muscular body was more tanned than usual.

"I have to promise never to be with another man again. I promise, only you. I want you to be mine forever" she promised and her smile in her sleep was tender as she lost his virginity to the only man she had ever loved under the warm sun to the sound of bird song. She woke up alone in her dream. "Cloud where are you?" she called to him and he came around the corner and she screaming taking in his damaged body, his ribs split open and so was his head.

"You lied to me" he rasped as a trail of blood dribbled from his lips. "You want that man; his hands were all over you. You promised me" he said.

"No, he was only helping me get the blood off my body from the accident, please believe me" she pleaded with him.

"You can never wash the blood away! My blood is on your hands and it stains your very soul. Look if you don't believe me" he said while pointing at her and she looked down at her blood stained body and cried out in distress in her dream that came out only a murmur in the waking world as her hands tightened around her bear.

Sephiroth decided to turn in early after the strange day he had. He shook his head to clear it of the memory of how Tifa's body looked and wondering why he was suddenly getting interested in sex in general. He was thirty now, it wasn't like he had been interested as a teenaged boy. He had wars to conquer then. When he was supposed to have those urges, it had repulsed him. Maybe that had to do with Hojo's "gentle care" of him then. He wondered if he was just developing a libido now because things were different, or because Tifa was different.

Perhaps he go see Genesis, the third survivor and his friend and question him about it to see if he had some insight into this dilemma. Goddess knew the man would love the company, though he wondered if his friend would laugh at him for his naivety.

He didn't bother putting on the light as he stripped off to the glow of his own eyes. He lay down in his large bed with a sigh, arranged his pillows and blankets just so and arranging his hair so none of it was trapped under him. He gave a final wiggle to snuggle further under the covers and froze when a 'mmmrrrr" sound came from his left side and something seemed to move on his bed and a purring object settled against him.

"Out beast" he stated firmly pointing directly to his door's entryway, as Tifa's scandalous cat sprang lightly down and padded away silently and he cursed its name. "Ms. Snaggletooth or whatever" he grumbled as Tifa had told him its name but couldn't remember it. Goddess he hated cats!

Rufus blinked when he checked his PHS messages and got concerned when he received one from Tifa and then felt more relieved that she said she had broken her leg and was staying with a friend and would need a week off. She had rattled off her PHS number and then another landline number of the place she was staying and Rufus narrowed his eyes at it when the number rang a bell. He opened his phone book and looked under S for Sephiroth and sure enough, it was his landline that Rufus rarely called as they mainly communicated by PHS.

So that meant that his social work was staying with the most irascible man on the planet, who loathed all things Shinra. He started by mildly chuckling that grew into full blown laugher as he pictured General Sephiroth wearing a dainty pink ruffled apron and carrying a tray full of medication to Tifa. Despite the lateness of the hour, he poured himself another bourbon and silently toasted to Tifa and wondered why he hadn't thought of offering an attractive, young female case worker to the General years ago. She was a bloody marvel.

He sipped his drink and made a mental note to have Elena courier the paperwork to Tifa, that she would need to fill out for her one week paid sick leave and smirked that Sephiroth himself would probably have to deliver them for her. Then he mentally added that a bouquet of flowers be delivered to his place for her, with a card that read:

"Hope you get well soon but I understand you're in safe hands.

Please give Mr. Crescent a kiss for me to thank him for all the loving attention he is probably giving you.

Yours,

Rufus Shinra"

He laughed again at how Sephiroth would react to this card when Tifa read it aloud to him; that ought to really piss him off, he mused.

He toasted how whimsical life sometimes was and wondered if the Goddess, herself wasn't a bit of a comedienne.


	4. Chapter 4

Sephiroth woke up early as was his habit of his life. The sun wasn't even up yet, but he yawned and stretched, liking how it loosened his muscles. He was about to pad to the kitchen to start coffee, when he realized her wasn't alone on the bed and glared at the cat that somehow had managed to sneak onto his bed again.

"You're a sneaky creature" he commented to it and she rolled onto her back and yawned, stretching as if in imitation of him, and extending a paw towards him. Then he remembered about his houseguest and was rather glad of the cat's presence as he was a home nudist and his guest could have seen him in the buff. Though he was fairly certain she already had the night before.

He padded to the washroom to get ready for the day. He carefully brushed his hair and put it into a style he had adapted for when he was "working" he took his bangs and drew them back from his face and tied them back. Then with a series of hair ties, he bound the rest back into a kind of ponytail. He then washed his face and brushed his teeth.

He then debated what to wear. The first thing that occurred to his mind was his former uniform that he had always been told, he looked so handsome in. Then he frowned at this, why should he care that he looked handsome or not? He had never cared about this before. He knew people thought him pretty or beautiful but so what? He was being ridiculous. He was going to plow the field for the newly widowed Mrs. Smith in support of her. What use would his uniform be in this case? Would he be going to war against a field of weeds?

Tifa might like how you look in your uniform his brain helpfully supplied. Girls always did.

"You know; I am getting more than a little sick of your interference" he groused back. He shook his head to clear it of such foolishness and pulled on a clean pair of blue jeans and a distressed V-neck grey tee shirt, knowing better than to wear black in the hot sun. When he had inherited the manor house from his mother's estate, he decided to live there only because he needed somewhere private to live out his existence and had moved in as unobtrusively as possible. However, he hadn't counted on taking on the responsibility of a whole community of tenant farmers. He thought no one knew of his residing there, until for formidable Mrs. Campbell showed up with a basket of flowers, homemade strawberry jam, and a list of repairs the length of his arm to be made to the properties.

He had actually felt rather intimated as the diminutive seventy-years-young woman looked up at him and told him.

"We know who you are perfectly well and have no problem what you did; as long as you get started and get these repairs done" she challenged him and insisted he come with her in her tiny car, so she could introduce him to everyone as he didn't drive at the time.

It was from those farmers that he learned how to drive and he learned carpentry, farm work, plowing and everything he never would have considered doing before. He was now a member of the community and didn't dress or act any different from any of the other men. He had always been fastidious about his appearance, but dirt washed off.

He promised himself a nice long work out when he finished for the day. He normally liked to do some exercises in the mornings, but didn't want to have his guest wake up in a strange place and be confused. He left his room after making his bed with hospital corners as he had all of his life, ignoring the black shadow that followed him. However, she went directly to her bowl and looked at it and back at him meaningfully until he put some kibble into it to serve as her breakfast.

He then turned his attention to his own stomach and that of his guest, finding it a little overwhelming that he actually had a guest. What did women eat for breakfast? Was it worth a call to Genesis to find out, where he was probably crawling out from under his hangover, with a warm body on either side of No.

How about you try asking Tifa what she likes to eat? his brain supplied.

Finally, he pulled out a side of bacon that one of his tenants had given him and a bowl full of eggs. He now longer accepted money from them, he kept their places in good repair and they gave him food, which was always appreciated with his crazy metabolism. He set to frying up the bacon and started making a dozen eggs for himself and set six aside for Tifa.

"Morning, something smells good" she said limping out her room on her crutches. Her hair was loose and she wore a sports cami and a pair of bicycle shorts.

"Morning, how did you sleep?" he asked her.

"Like a baby. That shot really knocked me on my ass and you got to see it. Sorry about that, I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable" she apologized.

"Think nothing of it" he said, keeping his eyes trained on the pan so she wouldn't see how red in the face he went. "How many eggs do you want? Is six enough?" he said, changing the subject.

"Six? Two is enough. How many do you eat?" she asked him.

"A dozen normally, I have a very high metabolism, so in order to maintain muscle mass, my caloric intake in a day is significantly higher than that of a normal man. Why, do you think that's weird?" he asked her, feeling almost shy as he waited for her answer.

"No. I am aware of your regiment based on your makeup. I like eating my eggs with strawberry jam on them. Is that weird?" she asked him.

"While I cannot say either way, I don't believe I will be joining you on that adventure; do as you please" he said, perfectly honest and chuckling while she laughed as well.

"Coffee?" he asked her.

"I'd give my firstborn for a cup" she said.

"I don't think will be necessary" he said putting the cup in front of her with milk and sugar and her pain medication to make sure she took them and then his PHS rang and he thought it ironic that Genesis was calling him after he had just been thinking of him. "How's the hangover?" he asked by way of greeting.

While all three of them had agreed to put aside any uniforms or signature clothes that identified them in their agreements with Shinra, Genesis was the most normal looking of the three of them. Shinra by way of apology, had healed him back to his former beauty and his red hair was not out of place in society, though he had decided to experiment and streaked his own red locks-with black. It made a sick sort of sense in a way based on certain aspects that he knew. He was able to hide in plain sight while he lived the life of a rich playboy, flitting from career to career.

One day he was a model, actor the next and then a writer the day afterwards. The experience of loss of control due to Jenova had soften the temperamental man and made him much more affable. His only real weakness these day was no longer convoluted poetry, but for the beautiful women and men that he went through them like tissues. His own emotional scarring caused him to have serious commitment issues that never allowed him to settle down.

"Tequila party last night. I am no longer sure if my legs work" he moaned from his position between two blonde airline flight attendants that he met the night before. He knew each time he did these things, he was entertaining an early death honestly and so did Sephiroth, but he never commented.

"Try standing up" Sephiroth suggested and then set the pan aside and told Tifa breakfast would be delayed and she acknowledged this.

"That means getting to my feet and making them support my throbbing head" he moaned. "Wait, is there someone there with you?" he said sitting bolt upright in bed at this revelation and causing his companions to wince and groan.

"Yes I have my case worker here with me" he said.

"Fat or bald or both?" That seems to be the only shapes they come in" Genesis said rubbing his head.

"She's neither. She got in a car accident and is staying with me for a bit" Sephiroth explained.

"She? You have a female there? Put her on" he demanded, causing the other two girls to wince again.

Sephiroth held out his phone to Tifa, "Genesis wants to talk to you" he said.

"Genesis Rhapsodos!? The other survivor besides yourself and Vincent Valentine? Why does he want to talk to me?" she asked him losing her composure again from that building excitement once more and he shrugged and handed her his PHS.

"Hello, I'm Genesis and you are?" he asked her.

"Tifa Lockhart" she introduced herself as if she had met Minerva's second Archangel.

"Tifa, are you pretty? I know this sounds rude but I have to ask the real questions here" he asked her.

"I've been told I'm cute" she said with a furrowed brow while looking back up at Sephiroth and Sephiroth glared at what he was hearing.

"I bet you're a doll. Tell me, what are your measurements?" he asked her.

"My measurements? Thirty-two Double G, twenty-four, thirty-four- is this necessary?" she said with an adorable frown and Sephiroth firmly took his PHS back from her.

"Really Genesis? Was that required?" he hissed at him through the receiver.

"Looks like you might finally rid yourself of your cherry, she sounds exquisite! Are her breasts really as big as she claims?" Genesis enthused and Tifa looked up questioningly at him when Sephiroth seemed to blush and tried to look everywhere but at her.

"Genesis, I have to make us breakfast and then have a full day ahead of me. If you didn't call for any particular reason" he said in an exasperated tone of voice, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Oh you're making breakfast for two, is it in bed by any chance?" he teased him. "Yes. I'm having a New Year's Eve party and you're coming. Vincent's already VIP status, I will tell you more later, if I am not dead, and so is half of our old platoon. I won't take no for an answer and bring the delightful Miss Tifa. Okay, now off you go to play Farmer Brown. Honestly you're practically the Lord of the Land there, you should act the part" he scolded him.

"I look stupid in a white ruffled shirt" he said and shut his PHS.

"What was that about?" Tifa asked him confused and excited at the same time.

"We're invited to a New Years Eve Party" he flippantly said.

"Oh that's wonderful!" she said. "What is the theme? What color are you wearing so I can try to match you?"

"You want to go… with me?" he asked her looking, actually shocked.

"It sure beats sitting around at home trying to get Ms. Snazzypants to allow me to put a party hat on her head" she said laughing.

"I guess I had better get my tuxedo dry cleaned. As for color coding, I am afraid that is not my expertise. Maybe you could find the color of choice?" he mused, realizing he actually had a date.

He had never been on one before! Then felt rather embarrassed at how excited he had been.

"It would be my pleasure!" Tifa said with a soft smile on her face which caused him to smile in return.

"So what are we doing today?" she asked him when he served breakfast and was glad to have strawberry jam on hand for her. He still had jars and jars of it left over from Mrs. Campbell's visit, finding it too sweet for his tastes. Yet Tifa put mounds of it on her eggs and ate them with such a blissful expression on her face that he almost felt a tad envious.

"We?" he asked her quirking a silvery brow.

"You don't intend to leave me here by myself all day long, do you?" she asked him, face beginning to fall solemn.

"No you're right, let me make some phone calls" he said.

Mrs. Smith assured him she would be happy to entertain Tifa while he plowed her field and Mrs. Campbell, who he was having tea with afterwards, insisted he bring her.

Tifa couldn't believe it when he said he was going to plow a field and was astounded to learn that all their odd meeting locations, were because he was doing repairs to people's farms. It was a side of himself that she never would have suspected him of having. She changed into a skirt and shirt appropriate to visiting and waited until he got his "truck" into a better location for her.

Truck indeed. The ex-General drove a matte black original Hummer that had been lifted with an extended cab, oversized tires with chrome rims and a chrome bush bars and tinted black windows.

Another guy driving it would seem like overcompensation, but him driving it looked totally natural and it suited his personality. He didn't even ask, but carefully lifted her and put her into the passenger seat and handed her crutches. She knew he usually travelled on his property by ATV, but had decided to take the truck because of her injury and she was grateful. He was such a mystery, he didn't like to socialize and yet didn't hesitate to do something that made him uncomfortable when he was needed.

He was so handsome too. She found herself studying him as he drove them to their destination. What would it be like to kiss those lips? She found herself wondering if Cloud would have liked him and pushed those thoughts firmly away.

Sephiroth spent a boring morning plowing the field as he drove the tractor round and round and wondered how Tifa was getting on with Mrs. Smith and her brood of young children, all under the age of five. His thought was answered when he pulled into the yard and Tifa was giving the two eldest archery lessons and the baby lay in the shade. They must have been playing cowboys and Indians at some point because the children still wore cowboy hats and Tifa laughingly wore a headband with a feather in it. Tifa waved hello to him and handed him a bottle of water to him without asking.

"You do archery too?" he asked her, finding it interesting how many sports she excelled at. She notched an arrow and let it fly and it landed right in the center of the target, even though she had had to lean on her crutches. She looked significantly back at him. "My father taught me" she said.

"Perhaps you should consider a career in the TURKS?" he suggested.

"I don't like the uniform" she demurely said and they were both joined by Mrs. Smith, who couldn't say enough nice things about Tifa; she was in instant hit with the entire community.

For Sephiroth, time spent with Tifa was the most unusual time in his life at having a companion and he felt himself relaxing around her like he hadn't since being with his friends all those years ago. It felt comfortable, yet strange at the same time as they took turns preparing meals, though during her times, he helped her quite a bit and Tifa and he often talked late into the night and he wondered why he had ever thought her vapid.

It was the last day of her visit when something strange occurred. She had gotten up before himself for once and was in the kitchen preparing food when an old song came on the radio and she started singing to it in a surprisingly beautiful voice.

Why does the sun go on shining  
Why does the sea rush to shore  
Don't they know it's the end of the world  
Because you don't love me any more

Why do the birds go on singing  
Why do the stars' glow above  
Don't they know it's the end of the world  
It ended when I lost your love

He was about to join her to compliment her when she broke down and cried. He frowned at this. "Cloud" was the name his brain supplied, wondering why she wouldn't tell him about that man that seemed to haunt her life. He had walked away to give her some time to compose herself.

When he rejoined her, there was no sign of tears, she gave him a cheerful smile over her shoulder and he was struck by how beautiful she was. She still wore the braid she had asked him to put her hair in, liking how it looked on him for his "public" appearances. It ran down the straight line of her back, she wore a wine colored cami top and her bicycle shorts and was without a scrap of makeup. She looked wholesome and almost innocent.

I want to make love to her his brain supplied and he froze at this.

Make love? Where the hell did that come from. Seriously, since when did he ever entertain the notion of taking anyone as a lover. He felt confused and utterly flabbergasted and then realized he was still staring at her.

"Gaia to Sephiroth, come in Sephiroth. I made you your usual ton of food, come eat it" she urged him, wondering why he had been staring at her like he wanted to devour her.

"Thank you" he said, deciding he had to rid himself of her. But not before he had fulfilled his obligations to her.

"I guess I'm going home today" she said, wondering why that bothered her. She was used to living alone and was certain he would be relieved to get his life back without her being there with him every second of the day. Yet she would miss him despite him being a hardass. He was rather endearing when you got to know him.

"I'll drive you there after breakfast, well you and your cat and your bear" he added.

"I guess it will be nice to get your normal life back" she said though her face and voice didn't quite echo that sentiment.

"I won't miss Ms. Snazzypants" he said but you'll miss her his brain cut in and he quashed that thought.

I'll miss you her own brain supplied as she gazed fondly at him. How strange that someone who seemed as remote as a distant star was the first emotional connection she had felt with anyone for years, since her mother had died. She longed to wrap her arms around him and hold onto him forever, but she was just his case worker to him and always would be.

She had made a promise to Cloud, but sometimes when looking at Sephiroth in a certain light, when he had relaxed his guard and let her experience what he was like without his ice wall to protect him, she could only think "what if"? It was even more prevalent when she managed to coax a rare smile or laugh from him.

She tried to maintain a professional distance when she could only imagine running her fingers through his hair, touching and teasing him until desire brought on a full body flush to his flawless pale skin and making love to him until his perfectly schooled features relaxed in arousal and he became beautifully emotionally undone in her arms.

"I should go pack" she said, quashing that thought way down.

"You should" he agreed, tell her not to go his brain urged him but he ignore that as ever.

He brought everything into her place and was relieved that she was able to get up the stairs unassisted. He released her cat and helped her take everything upstairs and placed her teddy bear back on his altar.

"Can I give you a hug goodbye?" she requested of him, her eyes begging him.

"Yes, very well" he said and then she laughed when a wing suddenly wrapped itself around her body and he held her up while she stroked her hand along it, enjoying the feeling of the soft, smooth feathers. He angled it to her height so she could continue to explore the length of it, clearly enthralled by it and her causal acceptance of this unique feature of his made him feel happy. She clearly didn't think him a freak or monster and her hands as they explored a part of him he had never allowed anyone to touch, felt good to him.

"You're beautiful" she said and then blushed because she had meant to say it's beautiful.

"So I've heard" he said.

"I'm sorry" she stammered, trying to save face just in case he took offense. He was finicky.

"There is nothing wrong with knowing that someone finds you attractive" he said, starting to step back when he could only stare at her plump lips and she went to kiss him on the cheek, when his head moved and lip met lips and it was like something ignited in them both and his wing arched up as if in comical surprise while he melted into their kiss. Their kiss was simple and brief but left them both breathless as they clung together for a second longer to regain their composure.

"Thank you" she said not sure if she meant for the kiss or for everything.

"It was my pleasure" he said, not sure either. "I guess this changes everything" he said.

"In what sense?" she asked him as her ears perked up.

"You're in a cast. You shouldn't be driving to my place. If I need to receive anything from Rufus, I shall ask him to send it to your office and you can bring it home with you and I shall meet you here. If that is permissible" he added.

"That's fine" she said and said her final goodbyes to him and watched him get into his truck and drive away. She picked up Cloud, giving him a tight squeeze.

"Well it's just you and I again" but the words sounded hollow in her ears as she stood in her living room with only her obsession for company.

Sephiroth was trying to read, but was failing miserably, his place seemed too quiet. Finally, he dropped the book in frustration and touched his lips, he could still feel the warm texture of her lips on his own, the softness, her scent, he was…

"You just had your first kiss his brain supplied.

"I'm not a hormonal teenager" he snarled aloud, not caring if talking to yourself was a sign of madness. He had been there and done that and it was a very harmless sign as far as he was concerned and snapped opened his book and forced himself to read.

Tifa sighed as she made love on the soft sheets that smelled faintly of roses. Her hands rested on a broad back as he pumped himself slowly inside her in a way that teased and excited her, she could feel every nuance of his heavily veined weapon as his blunt head stroked against her g-spot. "Faster" she begged him and opened her eyes, expecting to see Cloud, but instead it was Sephiroth.

"Of course" he said giving her a flirtatious smile and started thrusting into her in a way that intoxicated her, yet she could see Cloud watching her around the corner with a look of disapproval. She wanted to stop her embarrassing scene but Sephiroth felt so good in her and swiftly brought them both to orgasm.

"I love you" she screamed at Cloud as he turned his back on her and then they were alone together.

"So you're forgetting your vow to me? Some pretty boy shows you a whiff of attention and you're hot for him and you're off chasing his pretty tail? Your dreams don't lie. You want him. I'm nothing to you now" he said with a sneer.

"You're my one and only and I shall never break my vow to you" she promised him and he looked at her skeptically while his wounds started to form and blood wept from his body, he reached for her to embrace her-and she woke with a scream and suddenly the sweetly benign expression on the teddy bear's face in her arms looked almost sinister.


	5. Chapter 5

Sephiroth was able to monitor the progress of how Tifa was healing as he stopped by at least twice a week after business hours when the young woman got home. He had grown accustomed to coming to her place just as she got home and allowed her time to change out of her office attire and then they would go over the documents either together or he would just sign what he needed to and be on his way, though he would linger.

Each time she would politely ask him to stay for dinner, but he always declined and kept their visits as brief as possible, needing to keep his distance from her. She kept her own professional distance, being politely detached though it her hurt her, as if he hadn't touched her so intimately just over a month ago and kissed her. Her coldness disturbed him and made his chest throb uncomfortably and that raised his ire.

She was excelling at her job and that was apparent at how many signatures adorned her cast, lots of them little more than childish scribbles, his own had been included among them at her request. He recalled a memory of breaking his leg as a child and how the only people who had signed his cast were a lab intern named Allen and Professor Gast. Allen had said he had children about his age at home. He suspected the intern felt pity for him. Professor Hojo had yelled at him, a mere child, for being inept as it would be weeks before he could do any training.

Such a senseless custom, to sign a cast. What was the point? He questioned dismissively.

"Are you going to physiotherapy?" he blurted, before catching his train of thought.

"That starts next week after I get out of the cast" she said, surprised by the personal question.

Everything they had been talking about had been business related and she felt a slight pang in her heart, missing the possibility of more intimacy from the earlier intimacy that had bloomed. This thought was chased on the heels with guilt from him.

He seemed so remote, yet he was right there only a few feet from her across her dining room table. He looked so good it was all she could do not to not have her way with him. The vivid and in depth dreams she'd had been having about him certainly didn't help this case. But, she had promised to be faithful and was going to, come hell or high water or insanely hot, socially inept Generals.

"I do not care; it will be much more convenient when you can come to me again so a disguise is no longer necessary" he said feigning irritation with the situation to dissuade the feelings encompassing his being.

"Oh" she said sadly and he glanced at her, hearing before seeing the emotion. Was that a flash of hurt in her eyes, he questioned to himself?

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" she asked him once more, beseeching he would stay, finding it hard to believe that he was the same person who she would find raiding the fridge in the middle of the night with serious bed hair that had been sleep tousled, saying he was after a snack.

Had that week staying with him all been a dream? Had it meant so little to him that he wouldn't even speak about it or recall the moments? Was she…that embarrassing to him?

She missed those days of meeting his tenant farmers and helping entertain children while the men were busy. His solicitous attention to her injury. Had it meant nothing to him?

"No, I have some shopping to do before I return home. Thank you for your time" he said and he gave her a cool, but polite nod and departed. He felt terrible on his walk to his truck. He couldn't shake the feeling. He let himself into his truck and blushed as he pulled out the suit and blouse he had secreted out her closet when he had used her washroom. It's not like he wanted to steal her clothes. He would return them on his next visit, but he didn't really know a thing about women's clothing and thought taking them along for sizing purposes would be a good idea.

He barely liked going into stores to buy his own clothes, he either normally shopped online or else bought ten of the same item if he liked them. He felt overwhelmed that he was about to venture into an exclusive woman's boutique to buy clothes for a woman! He was struggling to think of a way to disguise that it wasn't him that actually was buying them for her, he just hadn't thought of a way yet. He parked and he felt like everyone stared at him when he stepped into the entrance. He suddenly felt like the proverbial bull in the China shop.

"May I help you?" a well dressed woman asked him politely.

"I'm here to buy some clothes that are suitable for a business causal office" he said.

"Sorry sir, we only carry women's fashions. But are very broad minded here and have afterhours fittings for men who like lady's fashions and stock a large variety of sizes" she explained, obviously sizing him up and he blushed that she thought he was a cross dresser and that had some women discreetly tittered behind their delicate hands at this.

"They are not for me, but a for my… colleague" he explained a little louder than necessary, glaring challenges at the wealthy women. "Can you help me-Nancy?" he said reading her name tag.

"What are your 'friend's' sizes" she asked him, conveniently changing the term to "friend".

Sephiroth opened his mouth to say the sizes that he had committed to memory from what Tifa had told Genesis and his mind totally blanked. He never forgot a thing he either read or heard. It went into the computer that was his brain to be regurgitated as necessary. Yet in this overwhelmingly feminine domain with its pastel walls, well draped mannequins, dainty lingerie on display and comfortably upholstered lace draped chairs was causing his brain to blank over so simple a question. Ask him to solve a complex quantum physics formula and he could do so on the spot in a matter of seconds. Ask him Tifa's bodily dimensions and nothing came forth.

"Well" he actually began hesitantly, "she's about this tall and is thin, but she's also quite…" he said holding his hands in front of his own chest in emphasis and Nancy narrowed her eyes at his crude display.

"Sir, I'm very busy with appointments to dress a whole bridal party, including the bride's mother, who is built like a battle tank. I simply don't have any time to waste" she taciturnly.

"Please, I honestly do not know what caused me to want to do this for her. I do not know anything about buying clothes for a female. Please contend with me and lend me your help? I brought these" he said and handing her the bundle of clothing.

She looked at him, seeing that he was indeed being sincere, albeit, awkward and could tell from the stricken look he gave her, even though he was wearing sunglasses, that he was telling the truth. "We don't stock cheap garments like these, but I can help you" she said, looking at the sizes.

"Thank you" he said with relief, granting her a small smile, to his own shock and to her delight.

"How about shoes?" she asked him.

"Size 7 and her measurements are thirty-two double G, twenty-four, thirty-four" he said triumphantly as it all came rushing back.

"Shall we start with lingerie?" she suggested indicating to the section. "Do you have a preference as to style? We stock a large selection of teddies, nighties, baby dolls, corsets, garter belts and stocking, as well as your standard panties and bras" she said to him.

He had no idea about half of what she was talking about even was.

"Sorry I thought I made it abundantly clear that I don't wear women's clothing" he objected.

"I meant on her" she explained really slowly as if to a mentally challenged child.

"Why should I have a preference as to what undergarments she wears? Oh" he said when it finally dawned on him what she meant.

"She is more like a colleague" he said through clenched teeth. "I think we shall stick with shoes, blouses, and suits. She can buy her own lacy panties in the jewel colours she seems to like" he insisted.

Nancy raised her eyebrows as to what sort of colleague the woman was if he knew her preference in panties.

Nancy looked happily at the growing pile of clothes that the man wearing a trench coat, hat and sunglasses approved and added up her commission cheque in her head. The man clearly knew nothing about women's clothes, but had a good sense of what would work on the mysterious woman and she happily added costly shoes to each outfit.

"Sir has a good eye for fashion" she complimented him. "Will that be all?" she asked him as the tallied up the ten new outfits bound for Tifa's place, noting he hadn't asked a single price on anything.

He turned around when a dress on a mannequin gave him pause, remembering the New Year's Party they were invited to and internally sighed at the new tension they had. This dress though would be magnificent on Tifa, hitting all the right places, his mind's eye provided.

He walked towards it as if transfixed and Nancy quirked her lips at how the tall man stared at it. He registered that it was made of some very light weight material. It was a simple long black dress, sleeveless with straps that supported the weight of it.

"It's a Pierre La Peau original, it's one a hundred percent silk sheath dress and is virtually weightless, that ripples around the wearer as they walk, so it seems like she is her own shadow. Feel free to touch the fabric."

He rubbed a piece of fabric experimentally between two fingers and blushed that it was the second softest thing he had ever touched and imagined Tifa wearing it.

"Your lady friend, she's petite?" she asked him.

"Yes she comes up to here on me in bare feet" he said indicating exactly where she did and Nancy lips twitched with mirth as she measured the distance from the floor to where he indicated. The poor boy had it bad for his 'friend' she realized.

"The length should work for her, she will be wearing shoes after all, I'll throw in an alternations certificate if she needs it hemmed. I do have shoes we can add to match this" she offered, hoping that he came back and often, her commission from this day alone could buy her a new house.

"Very well, please add them to my purchased items thus far" he said.

She did and handed him the bill.

"Do you accept cash?" he asked her, quirking one brow slightly above the sunshades at the question asked of her.

"Sure" she said and her eyes almost bulged of her head when he pulled out a thick wad of cash and started counting gils.

"Wait if you spend that much, you get a free gift" she said plucking a purple lace and chiffon nightie from a rack.

He eyed it skeptically; it was completely sheer.

"I don't know about it. It doesn't look very warm to wear inside or outside" he dubiously said.

"You are right" thinking him very naïve. "She wouldn't wear this outside the home, or rather the bedroom. In fact, she wouldn't be wearing it for long, I'm sure your body warmth will easily keep her nice and toasty when you remove it" she explained, with emphasis on the word remove and he just blushed in understanding and eyed it with interest.

"I would like all of it delivered to this address" he said, handing over the coordinates.

"How would you like the card to read?" Nancy asked him.

He looked at the dress and several different outfits with an evil grin and said "Thank you for your fine work, Rufus Shinra."

Surprisingly, he had decided to keep the nightie to himself…for more research.

Tifa couldn't believe what arrived at her home, almost as soon as she did and gasped when she read on the boxes where the clothes were from and opened each box reverently to reveal one beautiful suit after another. She did own modelling show as she twirled awkwardly before the mirror as she was recently out of her cast. Each outfit was more beautiful than the last and fit her perfectly. She felt so grateful that tears formed in her eyes but then she realized she couldn't accept them, then thought about Sephiroth and decided, yes she could.

Finally, she opened the last box and her eyes went wide when she realized who the designer was. Trembling, she stripped to her very skin and put on the dress. It fit her perfectly, adjusting to her shape rather than the other way around. The material seemed to breathe and flow with her and she shivered at how it felt so decadent on her skin. She suddenly felt so sensual and freely twirled before the mirror though her leg still felt a bit stiff.

Tifa sat on the edge of her bed, secretly wondering if she could impress Sephiroth with this beautiful dress, all the while wondering if they were even still on for the party as her hand smoothed along the material in a way she wished was his hand on her.

Rufus was nursing his breakfast bourbon when Tifa came in.

"Thank you" she said clasping her hands and bowing to him.

"You're welcome" he said, his glass poised halfway to his mouth in confusion.

"I decided to wear this one first" she said spinning before him. It was a dark burgundy two piece suit, with a jacket that had ruffles at the bottom, a fitted knee length skirt and had a wide PVC belt at her tiny waist.

"It looks lovely on you" he said in a dubious tone of voice.

"I was hoping for a clothing allowance, but this is so wonderfully generous of you" she said.

"I can authorize that" he all but stammered, truly confused but falling back on his own neutral face as if it was all planned.

"But, I think you might need this" she said placing the discount card she found in a box on his desk. "I don't mean for me" she hastily added, in case he thought she expected more after he had been so generous to her. "I mean if you need to buy a gift for another lady."

His mind was still boggled but what she was saying was cluing him in as he studied the card.

He called the number on the card and demanded to know what the hell was happening and was informed about a tall man who came in to purchase clothes for Tifa. "How tall?" he snapped. "Oh really" he said on the next breath with laughter as an undercurrent in it as he still swigged his bourbon, disconnecting the call. Next he called Sephiroth. "General, why does my Tifa, female social worker think I am buying panties for her?" he asked pointedly at him.

"You didn't; you bought her ten complete outfits with match over options, matching shoes, a designer dress and a purple nightie, which I still have" Sephiroth said clearly enjoying himself.

"And why did I do this? " he asked him in a voice like a clenched fist.

"To thank her for all of her excellent work" he flippantly replied.

"Okay why did you do this? Better question, why still retain that nightie? " Rufus asked him and was shocked when the phone went silent.

Sephiroth froze and realized he didn't have an answer "It was the right thing to do, and for research" he all but growled and hung up.

Rufus looked at his phone in surprise. Sephiroth was never at a loss for words. He finished his drink and dialed Reeve.

"H Reeve, you're never going to guess what happened. It looks like a certain General is so smitten with our newest case worker that's he's buying her clothes, and nighties for research, he claims."

"Old Iron Britches? No way!" the other man insisted. "I tell you that if he were a woman, her hymen would be intact and as hard as steel. Nothing can get those pants off of him short of a can opener."

"I bet you a week at Healen Lodge that they have full on coitus" Rufus suggested.

"You're on, it will never happen" Reeve agreed. "And when I win I shall humbly accept the keys to your private island estate for a month."

"I accept. Are you going to Genesis's party?" he asked him.

"Certainly, that guy sure knows how to host a party" Reeve answered and hung up.

Rufus poured himself another drink and toasted that his plan was slowly coming to fruition. Hnn, for research he said.

Sephiroth was in town a few days later and questioned what he was doing. He didn't have any appointments with anyone or any reason to be in town. Heck, he didn't even have a disguise on! He had felt unsettled this evening and had decided to go for a drive and just kept driving and driving as if answering a summons.

He pulled up to Tifa's front door and wondered what the hell he was doing. He had no business showing up at her house and not even a document with him he might use as a pretext for having business with her. Besides, he always called in advance, he never made a habit of showing up unannounced.

He pondered what to do. He should just leave, he was nothing to her but a tolerated client, she had made that abundantly clear. What was he doing here? Why had he felt the need to seek her out? Okay it could get a little dull at his place sometimes but…

Wait was he feeling...lonely?

He pondered this and jumped when he heard a sharp knock on his window. He turned wild eyes on Tifa where she was perched on his running board and giving him an impish smile, he couldn't believe she had managed to sneak up on him!

He unwound the window and looked questioningly at her.

"If you're going to try to stalk me, you should use a more discreet vehicle" she said cheerfully, looking kind of off, she was smiling, yet looked as if she had been crying.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I'm groovy" she said leaping to the ground and doing a little wiggle dance of some sort.

His eyes almost bugged out of his head at what she was wearing.

"Let's get you inside before your neighbour see you" he insisted, hitting the automatic lock fob over his shoulder while firmly leading her inside with his other hand. She just giggled and came along quietly, weaving slightly under his hand on her shoulder.

He turned to face her after locking the door and drawing closed any curtains he could find. "What is the meaning of your raiment?" he demanded.

She wore a short, white cropped wife beater with black suspenders attached to a black leather micro mini skirt. Her arms were encased in black leather gauntlets that terminated into red dark red fingerless gloves. On her feet, she wore boots that matched her gloves with black socks. Her hair was worn in a really low ponytail that was just tied at the ends with a hair tie that matched her boots and gloves.

"This was Cloud's favourite outfit, I can still get into it" she said pirouetting before him and almost fell.

He caught her, noting no sign of a bra under her shirt and then noticed her place looked to be decorated as if for a party. Music was blaring, with a banner that read "Happy Birthday" and a cake the read "Cloud", yet there appeared to be no guests present and it looked like Tifa had been attempting to put a party hat on Ms. Snazzypants that now dangled from her chin area like a sparkly blue pointed beard.

"What's going on?" he asked her, as he removed it from the cat out of sympathy.

"It's Cloud's Birthday" Tifa said, picking up a drink and taking a healthy swig.

"Are you drunk?" he asked her.

"Maybe just a little, probably more stoned" she said with a giggle, weaving on her feet.

"Stoned?" he demanded.

"I've been smoking pot; we always do that on Cloud's birthday" she explained.

"You do hallucinogens?" he asked her shocked and slightly appalled.

"I only smoke weed once a year and only on Cloud's birthday. Want some? It might loosen you up" she said dismissing his prudish look.

"Thank you, I'm loose enough" he said and then noticed some books on her dining table and saw pictures of a younger Tifa with her arms around Cloud and the yearbook next to it, finally gave Sephiroth Cloud's full name, Cloud Strife.

"Okay if it is Cloud's birthday, where is the guest of honor?" he asked her.

"He's here" she said. "Now come have a drink with me" she insisted.

"I think you've enough to drink" he said.

"Come on, one drink?" she said, giving him an adorably wide eyed look that made him cave.

"Okay, but just one and you should put some decent clothes on" he admonished her.

"Oh come on, you know you like it. Guys used to crazy when I rode my motorcycle like this" she slurred.

"Like that? I'm shocked you were allowed out of the house in that get up" he said staring at her, more specifically at the bottom globes of her breasts peeking out of her shirt where it had ridden up.

"My father certainly didn't like it, but my mother allowed me to dress how I wanted. I wasn't a bad kid, I got good grades and only had one boyfriend" she explained.

"But why would you want to dress like that?" he asked her, not understanding about teenaged rebellion as he had never gone through the whole tight, ripped jeans, long hair and black leather jacket phase as a teenager as most guys his age had. He had worn scrubs and then a full leather SOLDIER uniform and just happened to favour long hair.

"It made me feel sexy and Cloud liked it" she tried to explained and then suddenly was up and dancing to a song that made Sephiroth wince as a girl sang about her skater boy, he firmly rejected her asking him to dance with her.

For Tifa, she was actually happy he had showed up, even if he was being a killjoy but she was happily drunk and buzzed enough to ignore him as he seemed to have no intention of leaving as he badgered her about her clothes and behaviour, while never noticing the teddy bear was in the seat in front of the cake.

"Come on, lighten up. You're not my father" she said shimmying up against him, only for him to step away from her.

"Why are you acting so bizarre?" he demanded as she lit the candles on the cake.

"Shhhh, cake time, put on your party hat" she said, donning a red one of her own.

"I refuse" he said eyeing the green sparkly one in her hand in distaste and then fumed as she sang 'Happy Birthday' to what seemed to be her Teddy Bear. He ate his piece of cake, not leaving because he assumed she was in some kind of delusional state and might cause herself further injury. He didn't know whether to call Rufus as he was her direct boss or the men in white coats with their butterfly nets.

He grabbed it away from her when she sparked up a joint and frowned at the taste when he smoked it all just so she couldn't, over her protests and she laughed when his unusual pupils dilated wide.

After that he loosened up more than she had ever guessed he would in his entire life and he ate the rest of the cake, three left over steaks and all of her family sized chocolate bar. They ended up on the floor of her living room sprawling side by said as they had a deep discussion that made no sense.

"Where is Cloud" he finally asked her.

"He's here, but not here" she cryptically said.

"That makes no sense" he groused with a frown that made him look adorable and she turned on her side.

"Have you ever had a hair whip?" she asked him.

"No, what's that?" he asked her, rolling onto his side as well, the effects of the drugs mainly already worn off, he was just feeling comfortable and relaxed.

"I won't tell you, but I will show you" she said. "Take off your shirt and roll onto your stomach" she instructed him and he frowned again and undid the buttons on his shirt and pushed it from him.

Her small hand almost gave him a shivery feeling as she brushed his own his silvery fall of hair from his back and he looked at her over his shoulder, curious what she was doing as she took her hair tie out and leaned over him.

She brought her head swiftly forward so her heavy mass of hair sprawled across his back and then she moved her head slowly back so it flowed over his bare back, caressing his skin in way that made goose bumps rise in its path. His eyes were blown wide open as she kept hypnotic hair dance, lightly tickling and teasing his exposed skin, his lips were bitten to stifle his moans, his finger practically ripping chunks out of her carpet as his member throbbed in his pants.

"Like that?" she asked him with her eyes dancing with mischief. He just swallowed and nodded, not trusting himself to speak. "Here's where we kick it up a notch" she said and suddenly her tongue was tracing down the length of his spinal column before her hair lashed him again and he bit on his fist to stifle a whimper, she collapsed beside him with a giggle.

"I guess it didn't do anything for you" she said from where she lay on her back and he still lay on his stomach.

"It was interesting" he said his voice sounding more breathless than he wanted it to be and hoping his face didn't betray his arousal.

"Could I sit on your lap?" she asked him.

"Do as you please" he said in a dubious sounding voice and managed to bring his personal traitor to heel enough to get up.

"It's the cuddling I miss the most" she mused to no one in particular from where she was snuggled into a Sephiroth like he was a giant body pillow as he stiffly and awkwardly held her.

"Perhaps you should call him?" he said, though hating the idea. "Are you finally going to tell me about Cloud?" he asked her, looking down so he could see her face and saw that she was asleep.

He rolled his eyes and carefully picked up her up and carried her upstairs, removing her shoes and socks, he pulled her skirt down and top for good measure and then tucked her blankets around her. He remained for a few minutes gazing at her, allowing himself a single soft caress on her cheek before going down the stairs to get ready to leave.

He redressed and then noticing her teddy bear was still downstairs. Know how she liked to sleep with it, he took it upstairs to her, but wondered at feeling of something hard in its belly and out of curiosity, found a zipper in its back and pulled it open. He discovered a hidden pouch in there and noticed a small metal object and pulled it out. It resembled the urns that he used to present the families of fallen SOLDIERS member, only much smaller. Noticing it was engraved, he read it.

"Forever in my heart, my one, my only, my forever, Cloud Strife"

Realizing what it was, he opened the urn for confirmation of what he suspected; ashes resided within.

Cloud was dead. He felt confused as he put it back into the bear and zipped it up and put it beside Tifa. His mind was a whirl of confusion as he drove home and resolved to look up a Cloud Strife from Nibelhiem, Tifa's own home town.


	6. Chapter 6

Sephiroth had to find out if Cloud Strife was the same Cloud Strife from Tifa's weird birthday party and possible mental breakdown that had died in car accident when he was sixteen. He assumed it had to be the right person. After all, how many people named Cloud could there possibly be? But that made no sense to him how Tifa could still be hung up on him as he had never loved anyone and didn't know that love could lead to obsession.

Then it dawned on Sephiroth that he had known a Cloud when the young man had enrolled in the SOLDIERS program as a grunt, he'd been a little punk having to wear one of those stupid helmets. He'd been likeable enough and a friend to Sephiroth's own friend, Zack, so little more than an acquaintance to Sephiroth himself. No wonder he that he thought the boy in the photo had looked familiar; it was the same Cloud. Tifa's Cloud. He wondered why this idea disturbed him more that he now knew who he was and had known him personally. It really irked him.

The night before had certainly been strange to him and he still didn't know how to fathom why the usually somewhat reserved and rather reclusive woman had suddenly been acting completely unlike herself with her odd clothing and drinking and doing drugs and touching him in a highly inappropriate way. He still blushed when he thought about it as he had never been touched sexually before either.

Feeling that it bared investigating, he decided to visit her at work, something he had never done before. However, the great part about visiting Shinra headquarters was no disguise was necessary. He could just walk in and out without anyone even batting an eyelid, well no more than his unusual looks normally garnered. That didn't stop Elena from staring at him as if transfixed, dumbfounded and freezing at how beautiful he was, having never been present for his infrequent visits before.

"Hello, I'm here to see Tifa Lockhart if she's available" Sephiroth tried, his eyebrows drew together in confusion when she continued to stare at him, her mind doing some highly X-rated things to him. "If she's with another client, I'll wait" he tried again to get her attention but she couldn't hear him as his tongue lapped her womanhood in her imagination. "Is there another person working with you?" he asked again, becoming annoyed with her blank stare and finally walked past the desk and went to the smallest, most cramped office that he knew the new social workers were always assigned to before they moved up the ranks. Leaving Elena and the fantasy him making love on a beach amongst the gently rolling waves, only for Tseng to also join in the festivities in her mind, she ignored three couriers with important packages for Rufus and Reeve himself coming to have lunch with him.

Tifa had a hangover the size of the planet and felt highly embarrassed about how she acted towards Sephiroth. Her head hurt and her usual bun seemed to be pulling at the skin of her head, she moaned and rubbed her head. "Sephiroth is going to think I've gone insane" she muttered just as someone knocked at the door.

"Based on last night, a bit perhaps" he answered her and set a bottle of aspirins in front of her and a can of ginger ale as the internet had instructed him to and what he remembered his own friends moaning out in the mornings after a bender.

"Sephiroth" she said, gratefully accepting both gifts.

"I was at a meeting in another office and thought I would drop by" he smoothly lied, taking a seat across from her desk without permission and noticed she was wearing the red suit with black blouse that he had selected for her, which looked really good on her, despite her looking paler than normal.

"I'm sorry about last night" she said.

"I guess that everyone has to, as they say: cut loose once in a while" he ventured in a way that suggested it was a foreign concept to the highly controlled man.

"It's a thing I do, I wasn't expecting you to drop by" she said looking poignantly at him.

"I was just in the neighborhood" he said defensively, his scowl carrying no true weight.

"You live an hour away; what business did you have in a residential neighborhood at that time of the night?" she asked him suspiciously.

"I was going to the new Wall Market Costco that opened" he replied defensively.

"Really now? You hate shopping. You suddenly felt the urge to buy bulk sized packages of toilet paper?" she asked him, looking at him skeptically with one eyebrow quirked at him. "You have to pass two others closer to you, to get to the one in my area. Were you coming to see me?" she asked him.

"Do not flatter yourself. Do you think I go for drives arbitrarily for no reason? I just happened to be there" he insisted and had the feeling she wasn't buying it, and chose his defense mechanism again: being miffed. "However, I did have a motive for coming to your office. I need to know what time I should arrive at your place to pick you up for tomorrow" he said.

"For what?" she asked him, feigning innocence while her heart skipped a beat that he was still offering to take her to the party.

"Genesis's party or have you changed your mind? I had thought you said you wished to attend it with me" he reminded her, leaning in a bit to receive her answer.

"I'm not sure we should." she said, having resolved that she would not be alone with him again.

"It is a party, not a marriage proposal. There shall be many people in attendance. Besides, unfortunately for you, you have Genesis's interest, pity for you" he said as if reading her thoughts and crookedly smirking at her.

"Well I do have a new dress I've been dying to wear that I received with my new outfits. It is so ugh…" she said with a purr in her voice at the thought of the material against her skin. Her behavior froze Sephiroth stock still at the sensuality of it.

"I'll be wearing my tuxedo" he said with a shrug of his shoulders as if he was talking about the weather. Sephiroth took in Tifa's emotions in her brown eyes at a glance, seeing how she was just itching to see him in it. This tempted her even further to stick to the plan. If he could look like a sex god in faded jeans and a simple work shirt, what would he look like in formal clothes?

"I guess it could be fun" she conceded though she could not shake the sense of foreboding though that wrenched her heart.

"Excellent. I'll pick you up at seven" he said, leaving without giving her a chance to answer and swept past Elena, who had now come back to her senses.

He was smugly smirking at how he had gotten his way. He was going to have a date with her in that dress. He was unaware that his face was actually a little flush with excitement at the idea.

"Hello Sephiroth" voices greeted him in unison, stopping him in his stride.

"Hello Reeve, Rufus" he said, not bothering to use their formal titles for his sense of wariness of the two.

"Do you have current business in the building?" Rufus asked him almost cheekily.

"I was meeting with my case worker" he replied, through gritted teeth, willing the killing intent away.

"I wasn't made aware of any appointments scheduled with yourself for today, unless my administrative assistant is being lapse" Rufus said digging further.

"Ah her, is she from some special needs program? I personally don't care myself. No, I was in the neighborhood and decided to pay her a visit" Sephiroth explained, switching again back to his snarky replies instead of anger.

"Oh, are there some nice dress shops around this area?" Reeve asked him taking a jab as well at the obvious clothing bought for Tifa. Clearly Rufus had shared with Reeve.

Sephiroth refused to dignify this with an answer, knowing the two men were prone to gossip.

"No just hammering out details for tomorrow night, Tifa has agreed to be my date for Genesis's party" he said.

"Are you bringing a certain item of clothing along for afterwards if you stay at Tifa's place overnight? For research purposes of course" Rufus inquired and could have sworn he blushed.

The nerve of these men!

"That is my business, have a nice day gentlemen" he said, turning on his heel and he sauntered off.

"So General Sephiroth, most aloof man alive is now coming to meet with his case worker at her place of business and taking her to a highfalutin party?" I will certainly enjoy my paid vacation!" Rufus bugged his friend after the General had departed.

"So what? She's probably the only woman he knows to invite" Reeve said doubtfully, though that didn't sound correct even to him.

Sephiroth found himself brushing his hair over and over again after donning his tux and threw his hairbrush down in disgust. It wasn't like his hair was going to get any straighter or look any shinier if he kept brushing it. He couldn't believe how fussy he was being about his appearance. Sure he liked to be clean and neat in appearance at all times, but this was ridiculous! And why did he feel so nervous? She certainly knew what he looked like and seemed to appreciate it, but still. This woman was causing him to have self-esteem issues, he thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He forced himself away from the mirror and picked up his keys and left and then fumed when he found himself studying himself in the rearview mirror again once he got into his truck.

Meanwhile

Tifa stood before the mirror and frowned. No matter how she positioned her bra, it showed and she didn't like how the underwear lines ruined the perfect flow of the dress along her body and she had the no lines underwear on. As if in a trance, she slipped both garments off and put the dress over her naked skin and paused at the effect. She looked perfect. The darkness of the fabric enhanced her pale skin and made her look more alluring then she had ever hoped. Tifa did not regard herself as being a great beauty, she thought herself cute and little more than that. Yet the woman who looked back at her in the mirror was beautiful and confident and even sported a small smirk of satisfaction.

However, the real Tifa felt practically naked and technically was as even her soft nipples jutted forward on the thin fabric. But she resolved she was going to go just as she was. She wore her hair loose, but had arranged it into loose, messy curls and tucked a rose behind one ear. She had outlined her eyes in black so they appeared to larger than before and almost almond in shape, giving her a mysterious look. She had applied red kiss proof lipstick to her full lips that exactly matched the rose, making her full lips look irresistibly kissable. She had just picked up her shawl, when she heard Sephiroth's truck rumble up her driveway and smiled that while she was sure that every limo in town had been rented for tonight's event, Sephiroth didn't give a fuck and chose to drive his farming vehicle of death; it was so like him.

He knocked at the door and then wondered if he should have brought her flowers.

Why not just buy her a tattoo gun and tell her to tattoo "property of Tifa" onto your balls? Better yet, just cut them off and give them to her his brain sourly supplied and was thoroughly ignored.

She went to let him in and both froze when they took in the other's appearance.

So beautiful was all Tifa could think. He wore a black slim fit tuxedo and matching black vest with silver studs, with a silver tie and matching handkerchief, against a black shirt. The cut of his tuxedo enhanced his pale beauty in a way that not even his uniform ever had. It fit him to perfection, emphasizing the breadth of his powerful shoulders to his small waist and long legs. Sephiroth was simply a beautifully made man that even the simplest form of dress could detract from, but when in formal wear, could cause angels to weep at the sight of him.

Sephiroth, likewise, found himself uncharacteristically struck dumb at the beautiful picture she painted from a simple sheath he had saw at the store, became a reality. She looked beyond beautiful.

"Do I look alright?" she suddenly said to him with a blush.

"You look acceptable" he lamely stated, flowery prose certainly being not his forte.

"As do you" she said feeling a little disappointed at what he said.

"Shall we go?" he asked her.

"Of course" she said and blushed when he lifted her to put her into the cab of his Hummer, suddenly feeling like a princess.

Tifa felt overwhelmed and froze a bit as a sea of Mako glowing eyes of all hues turned to face her when she stepped into the room with Sephiroth. She felt embarrassed because she didn't know that everyone was simply admiring her beauty. She looked up in surprise when a large pale hand slipped into hers and Sephiroth drew her forward to introduce her to his old squadron.

This gave her confidence and she flashed a grateful smile at him. The ex-military men had at first been admiring the perfection of the shy violet at his side at first, but glow of their eyes intensified as they widened to see the untouchable General holding her hand.

"Sephiroth" Genesis yelled and gave him a big hug that had him lightly patting him on the back in greeting while a much more sedated Vincent simply nodded at them.

Genesis wore a black ascot and red smoking jacket him place of a tuxedo and Vincent look impressive in his own red and black tuxedo. Genesis turned his attention to Tifa.

"Hi, I'm Tifa" she said to his intense scrutiny as she unconsciously squeezed Sephiroth's hand in slight distress.

"Beautiful! Sephiroth did you have to go all the way to heaven to kidnap this angel? What beautiful children you would make with your perfect features, but unfortunately they might take after Sephiroth" Genesis enthused to Sephiroth, to which said man rolled his eyes and Vincent popped the back of Genesis's head.

"Please, you're making me blush" Tifa said giving him a shy smile.

"I don't think that he appreciates you flirting with his date" Vincent intoned to Genesis as an after response to the playful whap to his head.

"She's my case worker" Sephiroth reminded them both.

"Is that what they're calling beautiful female escorts these day? Come, allow me to escort you to dinner. Tell me Miss Lockhart, are you taking on new clients these days?" he said as he led her away and she laughed and looked over her shoulder at how Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and then hurried after them.

Tifa felt a bit overwhelmed as both Sephiroth and Genesis vied for her attention as she ate a meal she could never afford on her salary and drank sparingly. She liked the other two survivors, she decided. Genesis was the most flamboyant of the three with his flirtatious ways that seemed to be a mask for deeper intelligence. Sephiroth was well, Sephiroth, enough said on that subject. Vincent, she had been shocked to learn was Wutaian. With his really pale skin and red eyes, she never would have guessed that. He was a reserved person but friendly and didn't mind her trying out the few phases she knew from her office colleague, Yuffie and Tifa had been surprised when Sephiroth corrected her pronunciation. She had decided that all of the survivors were some sort of fallen angels, each being beautiful in their own way.

"Can I have this dance?" Genesis asked her.

"I'm sorry as she is my date, I claim this dance" Sephiroth insisted.

"I would love to" she said and both the red head and brunette watched while they danced in perfect rhythm together. Genesis just smiled knowingly.

"You should cease your flirting with her. She obviously has a thing for our comrade" Vincent observed as how the beautiful couple seemed to glide together.

"Any fool can see that. I'm just playing on his jealousy a bit. I already have plans for the evening" he said looking significantly at a pair of exotic looking identical twins with long black hair and lush bodies.

"Need some assistance?" Vincent asked him in a deadpanned voice.

"Now that you mention it..." Genesis said as a third identical looking boy joined the other two women, proving them to be triplets. "As if I would ever disappoint you when you deign to visit me" Genesis said stated with a smile over his shoulder as he headed towards the triplets.

"Dibs on the brunette" Vincent said facetiously.

Genesis studied his secret lover, him being the only constant in his life. "I call dibs too" he said, serendipitously giving his hand a small squeeze of affection.

"Looks like I should visit you more often" Vincent said as Genesis led him over to introduce him to them. Genesis just smiled, as if they didn't live together! Although Vincent did indeed retain a separate residence for appearance's sake. Every night would find him in Genesis's bed and his clothes hung beside his own in the same huge closet, sometimes having to evict another body from there and nurse his lover through a hangover or a bout of recriminations about his fear of commitment. His apologies were always directed at to his patient lover, whose gentle love for him soothed literally both their inner demons and whose love was returned a thousand fold in Genesis's own lackadaisical way.

When it was announced it was midnight, Tifa looked at Sephiroth and said "It's okay you don't have to kiss-" before his lips were on her own and his hands cupped the back of her head and she responded in shock by kissing him back. At first his kiss seemed tentative, almost shy and then her arms hugged him to her and he managed to find a better angle to deepen his kiss and his own arms went around her to draw her even more firmly against him.

She couldn't get enough of kissing him, touching him. Her own tongue sought his and they were soon wrestling for dominance as their bodies rubbed together-until someone cleared their throat and the sound of a glass breaking . Both looked questioningly in that direction to see that Vincent was frozen in shock, having been the one to drop his glass of wine and Genesis grinning was from ear to ear.

Reeve's and Rufus's jaws resided on the floor at what they had just witnessed and every pair mako glowing eyes bugged from shock at Sephiroth's and Tifa's display.

"I don't know whether to offer you both a room or call a priest and give you two a shotgun wedding. I'm sure Vincent has a gun we can use" Genesis said with amusement in his voice and Vincent nodded at this.

"I think we should go" Sephiroth suggested.

"Yes" she agreed with her cheeks glowing.

Both were awkward as he drove her home.

"Sephiroth, I think we should talk about what happened back there" she started and then he slammed on the brakes and put the parking brakes on. "What are you doing?" she asked him when he turned face her, his expression unreadable in the soft light and suddenly he pulled her firmly against him and started hungrily kissing her again.

She squeaked against his lips when one of his hands slipped into her dress to hold one of her bare breasts and began almost roughly toying with her nipple. Sephiroth was past the point of reason, driven by a need he had never experienced: pure animal lust. He was mad to touch Tifa, to possess her and be inside of her.

Tifa warred against her own lust for Sephiroth and her need to be faithful to Cloud, but could feel herself responding to the raw want of him as his hands roved all over her sex deprived body, rekindling feelings long dormant in her and she moaned when his hand slipped her skirt up to cup her sex. She bucked in a wanton way in full acceptance to grind it into his palm as rubbed it against her.

Sephiroth was going purely by instinct as he lay half on top of her by this time as he frantically suckled her now bare breasts as he rubbed her to the sounds of her heated moans. He could smell and feel her arousal. Her own hands were soon fumbling with the button and zipper of his pants, her own resistance at an end and she gave into her animalistic urges of wanting to be covered and mated by the large male. She liberated his heavy tool for his confining garments and gave it some experimental jerks.

Sephiroth was far gone, his body quaking in a way that he could not control. To be touched so intimately for the first time in his life. It intensified when she arranged him against her entrance to bliss and he mindlessly drove himself inside of her.

She gasped at the almost painful feeling as he penetrated her sheath that had been almost rendered virgin tight from years of abstinence. She trembled against his own quaking body while her heart hammered in her chest.

He barely paused as he started to hammer himself inside her, each stroke driving deeper and deeper into her, stoking the long burnt out fire of her arousal. There was no rhythm to catch, his strokes were random but went deeper into her body then the one other man she had had, finding nerve endings and pleasure zones that had her practically screaming as he relentlessly stretched her until she felt drunk at the sensation.

Oh goddess! The sensation, her tightness, her wetness, the cries that ripped from her mouth, how her legs gripped his waist, it was too much and not enough for him! A full bodied warmth and goose flesh covered his thrashing body and caused him to shiver. Sounds being ripped from him, against his own training was rendered useless; he could not control the volume of the utterances made from his mouth. There were grunts and swears, sighs and moans from the two of them. He could control nothing; a rutting beast, a slave to their fuck.

It was powerful and intense and raw as they coupled as only attraction long denied could drive two people. It was only his last shred of sanity that kept him from driving himself full force into her unenhanced body and possibly causing her injury. His lips furiously rained kisses on her upturned face, neck, and breasts while her eyes were clenched shut as her hands gripped his shoulders. Suddenly her body heaved beneath his and she screamed out a name and tightened around him and then it was like her gripping walls clenched on him and then rippled along his length, gripping him in a maddening massage until his long denied release ripped from him in a torrent that made him almost howl and collapse forward onto her.

Neither moved except for the occasional body twitch until he registered what had happened and sat awkwardly back, tucked himself back inside his pants and closed them in embarrassment. He couldn't look at her as she arranged her dress, his brain quickly processed what his mind didn't want to believe, she had said a name at her own crisis, and it wasn't his.

"What did I do?" she suddenly wailed, bringing her hands to her face in shock.

"Are you okay, did I hurt you?" he asked her out of concern, venturing to touch her shoulder.

"Don't touch me" she commanded at him and he snatched it away as if the soft flesh had burned him, her eyes now opened and wild and the same time, staring at nothing.

"I'm sorry, was I that deplorable?" he asked her.

"No…no, its not that. Just drive me home. I don't want to talk about it, I just can't right now." she said huddling against the window so she wouldn't have to look at him and he did as she instructed in silence, shooting glances at the huddled figure and wondering why his chest hurt and his eyes burned.

She refused even his help getting out from the cab and climbed down in silence. She finally turned and looked at him. "Sephiroth, I am sorry that it came to this tonight. I did have fun at the party, thank you for the invitation. Please understand that…that us being together intimately means nothing and changes nothing. It was a mistake and cannot be repeated ever. As for now, don't come to see me here at home, at the office, or even so much as call me. I…I need time to think. I am sorry, but this is for the best" she said to him with a finality that made his chest feel even tighter and went into her house without a backwards glance and he watched her go through blurred vision.

Long after she'd walked through the door and closed it, and even longer after he'd climbed back into his truck and secured himself into the seat with the seat beat with the intent of driving to his home, Sephiroth simply stared at Tifa's front door, his mind a mess. He wanted to, no needed to talk to her, to apologize for whatever the grievance was. He knew he wasn't good with people, much less with women folk. He felt so helpless and he loathed that feeling. He was an ex-General trained and honed to wage war and keep peace as well when times demanded it, not some simpering teenager experiencing his first heartbreak, or was he?

He wanted to rip that seat beat off of himself and rush to her door and knock on it until it came crashing down just to get to her. The other part of him that wanted to be affronted at her for taking something so precious that he didn't even know he would care about missing until it was thrown so casually back into his face; he wanted to torch her house. He'd heard that treacherous name called out in her passionate release, when it was him that was giving it to her. And they stated at times in history he'd been sadistic!

He banged his hands against the steering column just shy of removing the full wheel, laying his forehead against the cooled leather bindings wrapping the wheel, as his hands gripped the sides of it to the point of almost making a dent with the pressure, the ominous strain sounding from his actions. He hastily lifted up and turned on the ignition of the truck with the keys and with the windows on the vehicle down, letting in the cool night air and airing out the haunting smell of their coupling and he finally drove away, those traitorous tears did flow from his eyes confirming his earlier thoughts.

Tifa had walked into the house, but hadn't gotten very from the entryway. She knew that Sephiroth was still there outside, longingly staring at her door. What was she going to do? She knew everything had changed. They certainly had for her. But what of her promise? She was so conflicted as she cried out loud at the unfair standards she herself had exacted though her brain would not accept that. She had worked so hard for Sephiroth to trust her, to become close to her. She had no idea that she had gotten him to see her the way he had this evening. She had an inkling and the blatant flirting and jealousy was her giveaway this evening. For him to have went this far and she allow it, she…she was beside herself.

Her fifteen-year-old self was jumping for joy for the loving caresses her body had experienced in his hands. Something else pulled at her thoughts about his overall performance, but wouldn't take full form. She also knew that Sephiroth was no fool and he had such good hearing that it was almost painful. He had heard his name on her lips at her long awaited release. She had even flinched internally at that. How could she face him after all of this? She had promised! She had PROMISED! It didn't matter if he was not here physically with her, love transcended all, right?

You need someone to be there for you intellectually, emotionally, and physically the less heard part of her mind and mind supplied.

She pulled at her hair, dismantling the remaining ringlets not undone by Sephiroth's and her own wild coupling. She ripped the dress from her body, letting it fall to the floor haphazardly with ominous staining on the inside of it from redressing so quickly after and for having been nude in the first place. What in the hell had she been thinking? She realized she still had not heard Sephiroth's engine roar to life. Despite the overall upset she felt for everything, she peeked out of her living room window from the side, seeing that all the windows were down and the General was easily able to be seen…with his head on the steering wheel as if in anguish.

Had she set him back with this one careless action tonight?

She jumped as she finally heard the truck turn over and one final glance to him, right before he peeled away into the night, caught in the moonlight of his main window showing a sliver of silver trailing from his right eye, down his cheek and then he was gone.

She had cut him, and very deeply it seemed to draw tears.

Sephiroth never cried. Never did he for his childhood. Never did he for his parent's mistreatment of him or the experiments done to him. Not for seeing war at a tender age of fourteen, for nothing and for no one, until her.

Guilt and bile rose in her throat it seemed at the same time as she ran for her own washroom, collapsing to the floor before the commode, emptying its contents as it seemed as her guilt and anguish only rose.

Tomorrow, she would have to tell her superior what had transpired and transfer away from him for his own safety and sanity, against her heart wishes and to keep maintaining what remained of her promise to Cloud as she could swear she could feel his intense disappointment bearing down on her as well.


	7. Chapter 7

So Tifa sat in her office feeling quite numb and hungover actually for the most part. It wasn't as if she had slept any of Saturday night, after everything had happened. She had had fitful sleep when she did fall out of consciousness, sleeping deep into the afternoon of Sunday. Only to begin the process again of struggling to sleep again on Sunday evening for Monday morning's work.

So what did she do? She found some wine and whiskey and well pretty much everything else she had had in her place and drank it so she could find the sweet release of sleep. At this point though, she wondered if she meant to drink herself to death. It clearly hadn't worked at how her head throbbed.

She'd came right in at 8am sharp, bypassed Rufus's assistant and barged into his office even as the man was reading the paper and about to take a swig of his own bourbon laced coffee and she had vomited out what had transpired between herself and Sephiroth. That she needed a transfer immediately to someone else, to fire her, or to accept her resignation in the most humorless way he'd ever seen her do.

The man had set both items he had in his hands down with care and honestly looked at her with actual concern, fearing that the General had actually raped her or something. But couldn't picture it, it was against his nature. No, that look Rufus gave her was so much more loaded, but she couldn't have known, would not have known. Files are not the complete ins-and-outs of a person of course.

Rufus, strangely without fanfare, did reassign her to another client, only saying that it wasn't a child and that it would be another adult. With a muted dismissal more on her end than his, she walked back to her cramped, windowless office to prepare for her first meeting with the client by reading their file, once she was given her the name of her client.

What she didn't expected, was to be blindsided by Rufus by being assigned to Seph...his best friend, Genesis Rhapsodos and not this soon after what had transpired.

She couldn't even say Sephiroth's name anymore without it hurting emotionally and physically. Her head swam with the news of her new assignment and also, the emotions that would surely be the death of her.

When had she fallen for the man this hard? He was as exciting as a wet towel drying in the sun. Then she further sank into guilt because she knew that he had been emotionally retarded, hence the fallout years back and his mental decline. Would this incident spark another decline? Had he really felt something so strongly for her and she dismissed it? She cradled her head in her hands and had never been so happy for her rarely visited office as she sat at her desk and bitterly wept, silently feeling torn for a love of the now, that she was trying to do right by and one of the past she was still trying to hold onto, that was doing her no benefit.

Rufus sat at his desk after calling Reeve and explained what had happened with none of the previous mirth in his voice, feeling tense and subdued at the situation. It seems that, yes Sephiroth was no longer mint condition in the sexual department, but also had been scorned on the same night no less for a phantom.

Rufus may have acted very devil may care, but he knew who he was hiring and he knew that Tifa had been an item with a cadet Cloud Strife back in the day and had had a breakdown of her own, not really moving on at all. Now was a time for damage control for this very unfortunate situation and Reeve promised to help in anyway that he could.

The first thing Rufus did was rather unorthodox. but it seemed necessary since he felt that it would help in the long run. Rufus gathered his office phone to his ear, quickly dialing a number on the pad and after three rings, a familiar voice answered.

"Rhapsodos and Valentine residence" the new client in question stated, knowing full well who was calling, just not why.

"Genesis, I need you to come to my personal office at my home. We have some…things to discuss involving Sephiroth, Tifa Lockhart, and now yourself" Rufus said wearily.

"By all means fearless leader, what time?" Genesis said with a smile in his voice that belayed the tension he felt in his body from Rufus's sentence.

"I am heading out now and I will meet you there. Until that time, be well" and with that Rufus disconnected the call, swept up his long, white trench coat and in passing his receptionist, told her to cancel all appointments for the day as he was leaving for an 'important meeting' at his office at his home.

Rufus rang Reeve and Tseng, his leader of the TURKS each on their PHS, instructing them to meet him at the house. He knew with Genesis and Vincent, as he knew he would bring him, they would be automatically distrustful initially; call it a survival instinct.

Elsewhere

Sephiroth was attempting to do his daily ritual as he had done for years prior to Tifa's…her interference in his life. He had never felt so off kilter on everything. He had just gotten back to sleeping, though he had a perchance for dreading waking because he knew there would be chance of seeing her.

She had been added to his list of 'firsts'. His first Mako injections at the hands of his crazed father. His first battery of tests to see what his limits truly were. His first mission in SOLDIER. His promotion to General and first successful War. His first conversation with a female, an intelligent female at that. His first pleasing touches that weren't a ruse or a promise of pain. His first kiss, caress, and lovemaking all from the same said female. She had made up all of his positive firsts. She had also dealt him his very first and very real emotional wound that hurt as deep and real as any sword puncture or bullet wound at her dismissal of him.

He could see himself on that Saturday night, speeding into his driveway, vision obscured by tears. What was he, a child? No. These were the true emotions of a man hurt and scorned. He'd come home, almost breaking his door off its hinges, his fingertips still indented in it to this day and it was steel wrapped in wood.

He had lashed out at every single piece of furniture that was in sight in his anger, damaging couches, loveseats, tables, and other affects along the way. The more he raged, the more the tears flowed. He lit things here and there on fire with internalized anger made into potent Fira spells. His wing was released as his strength had crested.

He ended up in his kitchen, in front of his stainless steel fridge and he hit it in his grief and pain and left two huge indentations on the fridge, to which he laid his head directly on them and those tears just turned to straight unadulterated sorrow. The anger extinguished and left him just hollow and confused and drowning in sadness. The harder he cried, the more he just couldn't focus on anything else but the dismissal he'd experienced, and for a dead man no less.

With that last thought, his legs gave out and he slowly slid down the front of the refrigerator, slowly turning so that his side rested against it, him huddled as small as 6'5 males could, looking every bit of the lost inner child, that equally was crying its heart out for yet again, not being able to have something or even someone that is nice, stay with him. Sephiroth remained that way from the night hours of Saturday to the night hours of Sunday evening.

Finally, mostly because he knew he wouldn't be able to stand the destruction around him in his home and his own filth, he moved with inhuman speed and removed all damaged items from inside, to the front of the house so that he could call and have them removed tomorrow. As for repurchasing the items, he would from the internet as he was in no mood for interaction.

Once he was satisfied everything that was damaged by hand that could be taken out, was taken out, he dragged himself into the shower and began to bathe. While bathing and thinking back on the sensual touches and sexual gratification, he began to feel disgusted with his own body for betraying him that way. He promptly turned the water to scalding, leaving his skin, though resistant, borderline with a first degree burn that was burning and re-healing in a constant cycle in the water, while he actually scrubbed at the overly sensitive skin.

Finally, after this mistreatment of his body, he got out, forgoing clothing and casting a quick warmed aero spell, collapsed into the bed only to curl up into the fetal position. His heart hurt so badly he thought he might die. Maybe having coitus had caused this heavy pain in his chest? He fell into a fitful sleep and had now awaken on Monday feeling no better for it. As much as he despised to show weakness, Genesis was his friend and he reached out to him on his PHS to see if he was aware of anything of this magnitude.

"Hello, Hero" Genesis purred into the receiver with a small bit of happiness in his voice to hear from his friend so soon after the party. He was currently stationed on a peace mission to oversee more electrical alternatives with Vincent and Reeve.

Sephiroth didn't mean to as his pride would never allow for it, but on hearing his comrade, he audibly sobbed and tried to bite back the following sounds that wanted to escape.

Genesis on the on the other end, had heard it with his also sensitive hearing and went into high alert for his friend. His hand pulling the phone away from his ear to look at it as if it had offended him at the sobs and then back firmly to his ear as the sounds Sephiroth had made had brought up a slew of all things horrible and they all had been at the end of a scalpel and painfully experienced.

"Sephiroth, what is wrong?" Genesis stated firmly as the General of old to his colleague.

Sephiroth began to despair because in him just thinking about it all, his chest burned like liquid fire, making his breaths come in and out rather uneven and shallowly. He, unbeknownst to him, was beginning to hyperventilate.

"I…I can't. I don't know" he managed weakly before the phone fell to his side, the tears coming down in earnest.

"I'm on my way" Genesis stated with an unnatural calm. Though the phone was not by his ear, he knew Sephiroth heard, just as Sephiroth had tried to shuffle away from the phone in his delirium, he heard the man crying. Sephiroth did not cry. It was fact and he was unapologetic about it. Something had shaken him to the core.

Genesis, much like Sephiroth and Vincent, had the gift of flight but his wings had been figuratively clipped by their agreement for anonymity. Genesis dressed lightly in a worn pair of jeans, a red silk button down shirt on and loafers-also Rapier strapped to his side and his wing fully in sight. He grabbed the condo keys, left a note for Vincent that he'd gone to check on Sephiroth after receiving a disturbing call from him and with the door closed and locked, he bent slightly and vaulted into the air to fly at top speed to Sephiroth's manor house.

Sephiroth had lay all the way down on the floor on his side. In the last few moments before passing out, his mind had supplied that he was hyperventilating and he'd grabbed a sandwich bag from one of the kitchen drawers, that had survived his emotionally charged outburst, breathing deep into the bag.

What seemed like minutes passed and there was a knock at the door. Genesis had a spare house key in case of an emergency like this, where one of them was lost to the nightmares and couldn't respond. What he found was a disheveled, crumpled version of the man openly weeping and nude, other than his long hair acting as a mockery of a shield.

Sephiroth looked like the frightening child he was inside.

Genesis gently landed on a knee, careful of Rapier and drawing back in his wing. He simply moved towards the man to look him over and Sephiroth clung to him in a would-be bone breaking hug.

"I am in pain Genesis. I do not understand what it is or why it is happening. I am not wounded but I cannot sleep. I have barely eaten which is like a death sentence for me and I have no will to go on" Sephiroth said into the other man's shoulder.

To say that Genesis was worried about him was a understatement. He held the man back as well and steeled his own emotions.

"Sephiroth, come on. Tell me what has happened to you. Start from the beginning and do not leave out any details, no matter how embarrassing or hurtful or even what you feel is benign. I have to know how to best help you and I will need all the facts" Genesis said. He calmly got up for a moment and came back with a throw blanket from the couch in the living room. He'd saw the kitchen as well. What in the hell had taken place in just two days since he had last seen him that made him cause such destruction to his own property?

He covered Sephiroth and finally Sephiroth began to tell him exactly what happened from Saturday night to now, Monday afternoon.

It had been at least ten minutes since Sephiroth had finished with his recount of what had transpired between himself and Ms. Lockhart. Genesis sat still because he was so angry at the situation, he felt his old personality wanting to surface. He would not be a monster and kill a woman but his friend was hurt, so much worse than she knew. He honestly didn't understand himself, why she'd done it at all the chemistry between Sephiroth and Tifa that was there; it was palpable.

Genesis spoke to Sephiroth, explaining what he was feeling was more than just loss, that it sounded like broken heart syndrome. He went as far to say that the reason why Sephiroth was having such a hard time dealing with something that seemed so small, was that Sephiroth had placed all his trust and hope, two of his rarest feelings, into her and by extension, into their first time coupling, regardless if on a bed of roses or the back of his Hummer. It had been his first time; he was bound to be emotional in some form or another.

Sephiroth had stopped crying and listened intently to Genesis's words, for he knew that the man himself had shattered and had to rebuild himself from the ground up.

Vincent Valentine, for all his silence, was the most helpful to the two. Despite the man looking twenty-seven years old, he'd been alive and around that age when Sephiroth was born in 1976. He was technically 66 years old. He would never age due to the horrors of Hojo and Lucrecia Crescent. He had a fucking demon inside of him. He took it in stride, had been a freedom fighter founded by a rag tag group led by his old friend, Zachary Fair.

Only before that could all happen, Professor Gast's daughter, Aerith Gainsborough, who had been a half Cetra, obviously the daughter of Gast and his wife Ifalna, the Cetra, had cured him, even as he had been aiming to kill her as he was out of his mind with alien entity control.

It seems Zachary Fair had saved her and by extension, himself from future experiments. Once Vincent had been found in the basement of the Shinra Mansion, he just rolled with the punches.

When Genesis was found in a Mako crystal and freed, Aerith cured him as well, then of course, Sephiroth. Vincent just had a way of dealing with them both and also his own outlook on life. His thinking was, Hojo was dead (by his own clawed hand that he'd given him), Lucrecia Crescent in crystallized Mako, what was there to worry them anymore? Far as he was concerned, he was the victor as he was alive. He had told them they would have to form futures for themselves and not dwell on the past. Genesis found him endearing, which was why they had progressed past just friends.

Genesis was shaken from his inner workings when Sephiroth shuffled onto his feet.

Genesis was up along side him as well. This was far from over. He'd find out why Tifa had behaved the way she did.

Sephiroth's face had settled back into its old familiar neutrality which made Genesis nervous, though he couldn't say why.

The pain had subsided in Sephiroth's chest. All that was there now was an open, black void of emptiness where he'd allowed himself to feel. Only for it be ripped away again, but on a much grander, personal scale.

No matter. Genesis's explanation was highly practical and he would just have to work hard on forgetting about her. He thanked Genesis, and slowly moved towards his room and the bathroom, intending to bathe for the night and go to bed and looked forward to throwing himself into his chores around the homestead.

Genesis watched him go in a concerned way, though his own neutral expression didn't show it, still worried about his friend because he knew denial when he saw it. He had told him of his broken heart syndrome, but not the cause of it; Sephiroth was in love and had no clue about this. Even the concept of love was foreign to him and he would have scoffed had Genesis simply told him the truth that had been as plain as day to everyone at their party. That had been apparent when he took the hand of the obviously shy Tifa in support of her, who obviously was not used to being the center of attention as Sephiroth was with his unusual looks. He remembered how he had been back in the day, he had been as remote and untouchable as a god and always in control. When had he changed so much to render him vulnerable to a pretty, nice girl? It was remarkable that, if it had happened back in the day, Genesis would have openly mocked him at his show of weakness and used it against him somehow. But that was then and this was now and they were both much different people. The Genesis of the now was going to get to the bottom of this. Sephiroth had severe broken heart syndrome. Had it been on any other heart not his own, he may have very well die of it for real.

The following days came in succession with Sephiroth having another case worker. It was another young woman, but she was engaged already. Yuffie Kisaragi was cheerful and outgoing, but she was no Tifa. Ugh, he knew he had to stop the comparison game. All his new young case worker talked about was her fiancé, Tseng.

Rufus Shinra figured the least he could do was send him something nice to look at when being bothered, as he knew he would take it as that. Surprisingly, the General spoke very little unless it was in regards to questions directed at him. He noticed that the relationship questions had ceased all together and somehow that made him more incensed, as if he'd been the problem.

Yuffie was always positive, even if he was always cold to her. She couldn't have known that he had let someone else in and they had hurt him worse than even his reoccurring nightmares. He dreamed from time to time, about the lab tech, Allen that was always nice to him and was the one to sign his cast besides the kindly Professor Gast. He and Professor Gast had signed it and he had been so excited about just those two names of the two people who cared for him. In his dream, he'd be in a specimen cell with the only two people who still cared for him daily. Suddenly, both would disappear abruptly, true to life events, only for him to find out, one left him to save another specimen, that was the last Cetra and his wife, only to be killed later by his insane father, Hojo. The lab tech, Allen had been 'disposed' of when he got too close to Sephiroth, making him feel guilty for making that man's children fatherless. So at the time when Tifa had a cast, he'd been so defensive, calling it a waste of time. It was his coping mechanism for redirecting the guilt and pain of their deaths for just associating with him.

He finished signing what needed to be signed and Yuffie on about her way with a cheerful goodbye.

He went back to throwing himself into his work for himself and others, praying to the Goddess that this hole in his heart would mend as it still hurt as if it bled.

Across Town at Genesis's Home

Tifa psyched herself up as much as she could about this visit. She knew this was Sephiroth's friend, who was she believed, dating his other friend Vincent. It was like a Mako-Demon enhanced lion's den. Would he curse her or just be difficult to handle? Would Vincent join in and them take their joint anger out on her for her abandoning Sephiroth?

A lot of good that did by the way. She hadn't slept, ate, or truly taken care of herself since that night. She missed him. Why couldn't she just go back to him and admit that she loved him? Oh that's right. She was still trying to uphold a dead person's memory by a rudimentary promise. She batted at the angry, bitter tears that began to fall again. She pulled down her car's visor and peered into the tiny mirror there. She looked like she felt: like a pile of dung.

Her bun was askew, makeup was minimal which she never needed a lot, unless she had raccoon eyes from no sleep and guilt eating at her, like now. Her clothes were even uncustomarily wrinkled and hastily thrown on. She swore like a sailor and slammed the visor up, grabbed her purse, and locked the car and stumbling to the front door. She went to raise her tiny fist to the door and Genesis swung it open, looking down at her with a smile.

She wanted to punch him in the face and had no idea where that had come from.

Genesis hurriedly moved to side to welcome her in. He'd done his research and he now knew what was occurring between Sephiroth and Tifa had zero to do with them, but everything to do with one Cloud Strife. 

Tifa made her way to where Genesis had offered her a seat on the sofa and him on the loveseat across from her, a heavy wooden table in the center. Tifa shuffled like a skittish animal under his bright sky blue gaze.

Let a man have jade green eyes with vertical slits, but a man with normal pupils with blue, just shy of white and I am intimidated, groused Tifa internally. She knew though that wasn't it. She had read up on Genesis. She knew he had commitment issues of all categories, hence the open relationship with Vincent. She knew that he could be impulsive as well on anything he went after too. That thought sat in her stomach like a stone for some reason as the man had sat back on the couch with his legs crossed and fingers laced and perched on his knee. Something about Genesis relaxed pose gave her warning signals.

She begins going over his basic paperwork and to try to run over his set of questions, when he stopped her process cold, her hand poised right above his paperwork she which was in the middle of shuffling.

"You seem stressed. Can I offer you something to drink or would you like to talk about it?" he said with a sympathetic tone to his voice, that she knew had everything to do with not being concerned, as more of getting information. Genesis was a lot like Sephiroth in that way. Where Sephiroth was blunt and in your face asking the questions and demanding the answers, she could see Genesis was sly but just as deadly. Somehow she knew that he knew something other than obvious what had occurred between her and Sephiroth. She was more than positive the man would have confided in Genesis as he did look upset, she just didn't know to what level.

"Come now! I am just looking out for my friends. I will admit that I know what has transpired between you and Sephiroth and I am perplexed as to why you would leave him that way. From the looks of things, you both look…unwell" Genesis was careful with his words but she caught that Sephiroth looked the worse for wear as well, which meant it had meant a lot to him too.

"Genesis, please, I am not here to talk about Sephiroth and I's relationship, or lack of. What happened, we both agreed was a mistake and should not be repeated. That is why I have been assigned to a new client and if this fact upsets you, I can be reassigned again" she said looking down at the paperwork, too afraid to lock eyes with him.

"Oh is that what you convinced yourself of, that it was a "mutual agreement"? Well, that explains why he was in the fetal position crying as if he had been run through when I went to see him after getting his PHS call" Genesis stated with an air of amusement at Tifa's look of horror.

What had she done? She knew that Sephiroth operated a certain way for a reason. Of all of the survivors, Sephiroth seemed to have had it the worst because his own mother and father offered him up to science experimentation from the time he'd been conceived in the womb. Tifa began to shake though she tried to stick to her guns. Just as she was about to try to redirect Genesis back to the paperwork, which at this point she knew was a loss because she knew the man was livid. His coping mechanism was, with painful jabs to the person's weak points of their mind, like he had done at one time to Sephiroth, making him think that Sephiroth and himself were monsters.

"I am so glad that you can make the tough decisions, like when a relationship is over and when it is not. I am so glad that his first time sexually with someone meant so little that you would throw it back in his face for a phantom" Genesis said, all humor removed.

At this point Genesis had moved forward with both hands firmly pressed to the wooden table between them as he stared her down. Those words out of his mouth made her want to cry all over again for her selfishness. Oh Goddess, she had set him way back on trusting anyone. You never did a person that way after their first time. She should have known. Now that niggling that had been in her mind, at his frantic movements as if racing for the finish line and slightly jerky rhythm, though so sensual at the end, made sense. General Sephiroth Crescent, in all his thirty years, had been, was really still a virgin and she had left him to suffer with those intense connectional emotions felt by all virgins initially. It didn't matter if he had been sixteen or thirty, he had been a virgin and she had mistreated him horribly and rejected him at a really vulnerable time for him.

Tifa's heart was beating overtime in her chest and her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. She had dismissed Sephiroth…after she had deflowered him. Another phrase caught her attention. Genesis had said "for a phantom".

Tifa began trying to pack her things up, though she knew she was supposed to get Genesis's signatures and ask the list of questions required. She felt like she was suffocating. As Genesis watched her frantically move around, trying to get away from the truth.

Vincent had slunk out of the shadows that he so blended with and laid a hand on Genesis shoulder, causing the younger man to still and calm.

"A word please Genesis" Vincent said in his low, soft baritone, removing the volatile redhead from the room and giving her a meaningful look that actually calmed her down some. Genesis knew something about Cloud and its hampering affect on her burgeoning relationship with Sephiroth.

Still there learning how to breathe again, when she heard the muted sounds of Genesis's excitable words then a…groan? Several other strange sounds began to follow: a grunt, a sigh, and a yelp. After about ten minutes altogether, Tifa's paperwork was back in order. After a long string of Wutaian swears from two distinct voices, Genesis awkwardly hobbled back to his couch plopping down and hissing at the action. His red and black streaked hair now looked on par with her own in a "who wore the bird's nest better?" kind of way. Genesis's eyes were glazed over as if reliving something, then he locked them back onto her, Vincent writhed by in the background as he groomed his own sable hair into place and adjusted his shirt, heading to the kitchen for something to eat. Coitus always made him hungry.

"Were we talking about something? " Genesis said slightly confused, and confusing Tifa. " Oh yes, your heartbreak with Sephiroth and you holding on to one Cloud Strife" he said, relaxed though what he was talking about was a bombshell.

She was not naïve. They were definitely a couple, with Vincent acting as the equalizer.

She sighed as Genesis waited for her grand excuse for denying Sephiroth for really, a ghost of things past. She didn't have a good answer.

She instead began from the beginning, much like Sephiroth had, starting with the boy named Cloud Strife.

Genesis listened soundly to her. Oh yes, he'd known the boy personally, actually Sephiroth had too. He'd been a cadet in the SOLDIER program and had died at sixteen, off duty in a drag race. Sephiroth's memory was splotchy due to heavy Jenovian influence, but he'd remembered because he was Zachary Fair's friend and Zach had taken it hard, especially when they'd started to gun them down one by one, Angeal Hewley becoming a casualty as well.

Genesis came back to Tifa as she finished and he began to tell her exactly how Sephiroth had been living in her absence.

Once they finish clearing the air of what needed to be said for the both of them, Tifa made the hardest decision she ever made. As Genesis signed and answered the questions pertaining to him.

Tifa thrashed in her bed, having a nightmare this time about Cloud, his blue eyes bore in an accusatory way into Tifa's own where he had her pinned against a wall. "You let another man have you. You have been lying to me. You fucked him. You broke your vow to me and made a whore of yourself. And with an asshole like General Sephiroth none the less" he raged at her as he shook her.

"You know I love you Cloud" she began as she always did and then cried out when he slapped her across the face and then suddenly she wasn't the young sixteen year old girl anymore and the woman she had become faced him."Yes I did because I love him. You hear me; I love him. I love Sephiroth Crescent, if he's an asshole, then so am I. I was little more than a child when I made that ridiculous vow to you and I never should have. What sort of control freak makes someone vow that anyway? You are dead and have been so for ten years! I'm alive and I want to live! I want to be with a man, not a ghost. I want to love someone, I want to be with them and perhaps even someday, be his wife if he will have me and mother of his children if the goddess grants that to us. Until then, I am done with you and holding onto your phantom" she screamed as she shoved him from her.

She was breathing heavy when his wounds and the blood started to form. "Oh enough of that. Go to hell" she insisted and woke up and looked around. She got out of bed and started taking everything that she possessed of Cloud and throwing it into the spare bedroom, as if attempting to exorcise his ghost. In went his leather jacket, pictures, every part of the altar, including the teddy bear and the oversized sword he had used in SOLDIER, though Tifa could never lift it, so she dragged it from the closet and added it to the rest.

Too restless to sleep, she got into her riding leathers and motorcycle helmet and took her bike out for a spin, seeing it as being a final ride. She moaned slightly at the pleasurable feeling of the motor vibrating under her, something she would miss, but promised herself far greater bodily pleasures in the future than lonely and frustrating motorcycle rides. She had no clue where she was going until she was following a familiar route and pulled up to the house and could just make out the sight of an exhausted looking Sephiroth slumped on his couch. He looked so heartbreakingly beautiful, yet troubled and her heart went out to him.

Sephiroth was startled at the sound of a motorcycle close to his property and looked out to where the headlights of the extraordinary motorcycle showed a black leather clad figure wearing a black motorcycle helmet with a black tinted visor. He got up and walked to the window, studying the figure. His visitor seemed to be feminine based on their body shape and he watched when she waved at him and drove away and he waved back, wondering who she was. It was like she had come to check up on him.

Tifa was ashamed at how she was retreating like this when she had been so close to him. But she knew that she had to purge herself of all things Cloud, to start with a clean slate before she approached Sephiroth. He deserved that after being scorned for a dead boy, the only person who would be in her bed from now on would be him.

She could no longer keep her promise to Cloud Strife, that perpetual sixteen year old and that she wanted to live. She would have to give Cloud away. And above all else she wanted to live with Sephiroth, no matter where life took them.

Cloud was her past as she roared into her future, silently promising Sephiroth that she would be back for him soon. She needed a few more days and then she would be his if he would take her back. They both had to move on from where life had scarred them and let the healing begin.

She when around a corner and could have sworn she saw at the side of the road, a vision of Cloud with his arm around a man she had met once and identified the stern looking man in the SOLDIER first class uniform as Angeal Hewley. He seemed to nod at her as if in approval and Cloud sadly waved at her in what appeared to be a gesture of farewell. By the time she looked back, there were gone.


	8. Chapter 8

Tifa thought back on what Genesis had told her as she packed up all of her mementos of her former love to be returned to his mother.  The bear his mother had provided her to give Tifa some comfort at Cloud's funeral, knowing how much she had loved her son, was also among the belongings.

Tifa suffered remorse that she had betrayed Sephiroth in her own obsession over a pointless vow made to a dead boy when she was little more than a child herself. She had taken from Sephiroth the final thing that had never been demanded of him in the name of science or war and then told him it didn't matter and then abandon him.  She felt like those that had come before her in hurting him so deeply.

She had earned his trust, perhaps even his heart that he wasn’t even aware of as well, and trampled all over it. She now knew that in her insistence that she be true to Cloud, she had denied her own attraction and growing feelings for Sephiroth. She had betrayed them both in a sense.

She was a mature woman who had denied her sexual urges since she was sixteen and that had led to them blindly fucking without any thoughts as to what the consequences might be or even about birth control.

What if? She suddenly questioned and then it registered in her mind that Sephiroth was a hybrid, so most likely sterile and relaxed a little bit, and yet felt rather sad at this idea.

She looked around the small house that was a shrine to her love for Cloud and pictured all the fruitless nights alone in the past and the many more future lonely nights with only a cat and bear to talk to.  The concept of growing older while the few people she knew being in relationships going on into to marriage, and of course the occasional invitations extended to her for dinners out of pity.  Then there was her sleeping alone except for the ashes of her dead lover wrapped in a comfortable ruse. Yes, she would always love Cloud, but he was dead and she was alive.

Then she thought about Sephiroth.  He was larger than life, a giant of a man with a unique beauty all his own. He could be oddly gentle and caring when his guard was down as it often was when it came to her. Yes, he unsettled her and made her angry sometimes as no one else could. But in the end he was just a man that life had failed, emotionally damaging him to the point that he had remained untouched until so late in his life.

He was the walking wounded, powerful or not.

She wanted him she realized and she was sick of being alone. She wanted someone to come home to, someone to cuddle and hold and make love with. She wanted him. Yes, life had left him battered and bruised emotionally and it would be a bumpy ride with him learning relationship skills as he had never really been given the tools to really build a friendship, let alone a romantic relationship. But he was already beautifully coming out of his crusty shell to her to allow her to examine what lay beneath and she liked what she beheld. Baby steps with a large learning curve, gentle handling of him, and infinite patience would be necessary.  In the end, she knew he would be worth it. She obviously had a thing for difficult men based on her first experience.

Then she wondered how he was as she had all but told him to fuck off. Was he hurting? Suddenly she realized he probably was as she had emotionally slapped him down and felt terrible.  Was he feeling this separation as raw as she was?

 How could she as a social worker, whose job was to soothe pain have been so selfish? He opened himself up to her in so many ways.  He’d had allowed her to touch him so many times when he had an aversion to it.  He had nursed her when she broke her leg.  Ultimately, he’d given her his virginity and she threw it all back in his face.   She had taken and taken, and this was her way of repaying his allotments.

Why hadn't she remembered how emotionally scarred and delayed he was and had told him his first time didn't matter; he didn't matter?

She closed the lid on the last box of Cloud's mementos and loaded them into her car.  She picked up the other set of keys for what resided in her garage. It was the last gift that Cloud's mother had given her, Cloud's motorcycle named Fenrir.  With an air of finality, she threw back the cover and said goodbye to it. She was giving it back for his mother to sell.   She started it up and it roared to life and remembered happier times clinging to Cloud. Before she had gotten her own motorcycle so they could go on rides together.  As the engine rumbled beneath her sturdy thighs, she rubbed her hands tenderly along the dark trim as if she was caressing Cloud’s very cheek.  With one final tear streaming from her eye, she bent over and kissed said spot she’d just caressed.  She didn’t care it wasn't the warm flesh of Cloud.  She didn’t care that it was an inanimate object.  In her mind and heart, this motorcycle was as good as being with the owner and she treated it as such, saying her goodbyes as she willed.   She finally turned it off and called a garage to see about shipping options, not even bothering to take a final ride on the beautiful machine. That part of her life was over.

She stopped at the post office to have everything shipped to Mrs. Strife with a letter of promise she would come for a visit soon to explain everything.

Finally, she climbed into her car and drove towards Sephiroth's place, stopping only at a grocery store to buy a full chicken dinner and then remembered and bought a second one and then a third one just in case he needed a snack for later.

Sephiroth felt truly ashamed of how Tifa's desertion of him was affecting him. It wasn't like he hadn't gone through worse things in life and yet here he was brought so low over being _dumped_ as Genesis had stated. Had it even been that though based on Genesis’s principles he’d clarified?  The man said that it would turn out for the best.  Genesis could be annoying or overbearing as a mother hen himself, but he had never lied.  Why is it he didn’t feel confidence from those words though?  After all, to be dumped implied that you were together in the first place.

Now he understood why rejection hurt so badly.   It wasn’t just about being rejected as a person, but that all aspects of himself were lacking to the point that he was cast aside and it internally hurt; it was almost worse than physical pain and he could bear much in that aspect.

What had he expected his first time to be like? Did he think she would romance him, give him an engagement ring, and then gently seduce him on a rose petal strewn bed on their wedding night? He was no fool or romantic, it was exactly like it was supposed to have been with his fucked up luck in life. 

He wasn't a woman!

How many women even were virgins on their wedding nights these days? The virginity of his body was so trivial. Why was he acting like this? Why did it bother him so much? He was acting truly wounded, and it was like he was drowning in the blood of the sharply pierced wound. Did he deserve this?  He’d refused to give her the satisfaction of shedding anymore tears.

At first, he had felt dejected but got on with his life.  He kept himself busy working out to the point of exhaustion, demanding the toughest tasks from his community, and throwing himself into them, refusing help. The farmers had appeared grim around him and let him do what he needed to do and steered any of the women who wanted to express concern for his emotional health clear of him.

"He needs to work things out" they all told each other while gazing at the anguished man with veiled sympathy, quickly deducing it had to do with his former houseguest. However, the constant workouts took their toll on him, and as his appetite had diminished and he was sleep deprived, he lost weight and the precious energy he needed.  Starvation was by lack of appetite was quite painful for him due to his metabolism, though he couldn’t muster the appetite.

 Nightly, the shade of Tifa came to him in what dreams he had and mocked him. Yet again he would be jolted from his sleep with a tearstained face, angry and embarrassed at the amount of emotional toll being taken on his person. Yet it was in the room that she had slept in, that he was able to sleep at all because he had never washed the sheets since her visit and they contained her scent and that lulled his restless mind, albeit for brief periods.

One day, to his absolute horror and also absolution, he just couldn't face getting out of bed and just stayed there.  He found that he could not even be bothered to remove his clothes the night before, needing rest so badly. Though he knew it near impossible to kill him, he gathered with his neglect of his body’s primary needs, a sweet, blissful comatose state would take him under as it had before when his levels were out of control. Sadly at this moment he could understand why Vincent had slept for so long based on his knowledge of the man now surely in his last waking moments.  He ignored his PHS, not caring to tell Genesis or Vincent his status for the shame of things, knowing they would trudge right over and try to ‘cure’ him, though not the one issue was the main culprit.  He heard the knocks on the door, thinking them the townspeople who had become concerned with his behavior and ignored them, just wanting to be left alone and wanting the world to forget he existed. Finally, with the last stray thought that a mere dainty woman was his undoing, he gave into the darkness of exhaustion.

Tifa arrived at his place and was surprised to find all the lights off with his truck parked out front. She took the hidden key from the fake rock that he had shown her and let herself inside. She put the food in the kitchen and went to look for him, searching the most obvious places.

His place was huge but most of the rooms weren't used as there was only him living there. She was about to search for him when she heard a muffled noise coming from the bedroom that she had previous resided in and out of curiosity, flipped on the light and let herself in. She was shocked to find Sephiroth laying on the bed fully dressed with greasy hair that had indicated he had been there for a while and the ripe smell of unwashed flesh.  He seemed to be fighting in his sleep and was losing the battle.

"Sephiroth, wake up. Please, can you hear me?" she asked him, having never seen the proud, arrogant man without of much as an eyelash out of place and she was worried beyond belief at the sight.

Dulled green, cattish eyes flickered open surprisingly against his body’s insistence at hearing the familiar voice and attempted to focus on the owner, only to frown with such malice, only to be turned in the same second to one of such sorrow.

"You're not Tifa, why do you continue to torment me?" he said rolling over so he didn't have to deal with the wraith.

"It's me, Tifa!  My Goddess, what have I done?" she said, recognizing the signs of depression and beginning to become worried as she took in his visage.

"Sephiroth, it is me. I'm sorry, please wake up" she practically begged him, reaching out to him despite his appearance.

"Isn't this what you wanted; me to pine after you, to miss you?" he asked her in a toneless voice turned still away from her.

"Come on, we're getting you cleaned up" she said decisively fighting her own flashes of pain of guilt.

"Do as you will" he stated, too raw emotionally to care what she did to him. Slowly, he rolled over and up to peer back at her, the glow in his eyes all but gone.  That scared Tifa.  He could be very sick from this, she thought to herself.

He sat on the bed, peering ahead with his arms wrapped around his midsection as Tifa filled up his bath, knowing he liked them and took him in to make certain he brushed his teeth. He seemed to be in a mild state of shock and didn't resist her as she undressed him like a giant two-year-old and got him into the tub.

 "I don't like to see you like this, I take no satisfaction from it" she said as she took the extendable spray nozzle and wet the full length of his hair. Her shuddered as she touched him and started to tremble as emotions he didn't wished to examine poked out from the vault he had firmly locked them in long ago.

Tifa sighed to herself, at the damage she had done but pushed through as this was the first step to healing.

"You asked me about- Cloud. I kept putting you off and it drove us both to despair. I-I've been fighting my feelings towards you. I care about you, a lot" she said, struggling not to cry and as she took the shampoo and lathered up the crown of his head slowly and gently moved the froth down, working it into the length of his silver flow, taking her time. "Cloud was my neighbor when growing up, we were the same age and our parents were friends, so we spent a lot of time together. We were in the same grade and had the same friends" she said continuing to work on his hair, restoring it to its former shining glory.

Sephiroth refused to give her the satisfaction that her gentle touches on him had silent tears dropping into the water, he was no longer able to hold them back.

"So he was so perfect that you would have given your whole life away?” he bitterly asked her.  He left off the _given me away_ , and though the statement was unsaid, it didn’t go unacknowledged to Tifa.

"Cloud wasn't perfect.   He was a popular kid, we both were. He excelled at sports and his main passion was motorcycles. We got together romantically soon after I turned sixteen, everyone always thought it was inevitable that we would. But he did have a problem. He was wildly jealous and had a temper" she explained as she finished with his hair and rinsed it and started spreading conditioner into it. "He didn't like when other men looked at me, but liked me to dress sexy so people would envy him. He used to choose my clothes for me. I-I didn't much like that, but I loved him" she explained. "I wanted to be with him forever, I wanted to marry him and have his children" she said feeling a bit ashamed that she hadn't striven for more in life.

"I see. So that was my competition?" Sephiroth said bitterly as his tears came faster the angrier he had gotten; his iron will having kept the sobs back that threatened to tear from his throat as he heard the tale of his dead rival who still retained Tifa's heart. Why had he ever thought he had had a chance with her? At least the other woman who had approached him sexually in the past had been made it abundantly clear that all they had wanted was his body and all had been refused. How had it come to this? How was it that her and her alone had managed to break through all of his defenses to reveal that one small part of himself that longed for lo...to be liked and cherished by someone? Yet she fed that part and then threw him away like refuse. And now he felt the fool.

"Yes, he was the one, at least I thought so at the time. But, he died and it's my fault. You see, I wanted Cloud and I to make love and he refused to until I promised I would only ever be with him and I did" she explained with a sob in her voice and Sephiroth gripped the tub so hard the metal squealed in protest but forced himself to listen, wanting to scream at her to stop. He didn't want to think of her with another man even in the past, it was disconcerting.

"He joined SOLDIER and I only saw him during his leaves. I met you once in fact when I was much younger, well Zack and Angeal and yourself. Cloud was home for a week and I was excited. We were at a party, I was drunk and another boy kissed me. I didn't even kiss him back. He called me a whore and wouldn't listen to me. He left with another girl he had dated previously. It sounded like they were challenged to a drag race when both were drunk, and there was a bad car accident and he-he died" she said choking down her sobs as she washed out the conditioner and taking a wash cloth, started washing his compliant body, noting how he didn't object, his previous anger draining away.

He didn't object because he was past the point of caring what happened to him. Let her wash him, fuck him, kill him, whatever as long as something from her and forced his tears to stop.

Finally, she moved around so she could see his face, not able to tell her story while he looked at her.  As she came around she could see him begin to tense again and from his neutral expression, eyes slit and pupils as thin as black slashes, that he was feeling vulnerable and trying to protect himself.

 "After he died, I dropped out of school. It was like I shared a coffin with him. His mother was kind and gave me many of his keepsakes: his motorcycle and the bereavement bear containing his ashes. I couldn't be bothered with anything. I stopped hanging out with my friends, I changed the way I dressed and got my GED through the internet. The only bright spot in my life was my love for him. I drifted from job to job, I worked as a cashier, delivery driver, hat check girl, even a bartender in a strip bar.  I quit that one because the manager wanted me off the floor and on the pole. I finally went to secretarial school” she continued through her history and slowly he began to relax, the neutral face not as harsh as his pupils began to naturally dilate again in the inside lighting.  He still was still feeling that pull on his body to let the darkness consume him.  He knew that he was weakened from all of this.

"I felt the need for a change. The house I have was an investment property my parents owned, so I moved here and got a job in a law firm in a typing pool. I got my social work certificate by going to night school and the rest you know" she said as she gently washed his shivering body clean. "That's been my life until now, I've been drifting. I am on dating websites but have never accepted a single one. I've clung to my vow because it kept him alive to me. Despite all the questionable behavior he’d done, I had loved him."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and made him truly look at her. "Then you came along. You were smug, you were arrogant and  you were the first one to make me long for a normal life. I fought my feelings for you every step of the way. You had the audacity to be beautiful to boot. Then we had sex… and-and I was horrible to you out of guilt, not because I cared about you any less."

"You care about me?" he asked her in a voice barely above a whisper, that odd feeling in his chest beginning to loosen, to lighten.

"For a long time. Do you honestly think yourself unlovable?  After all I wouldn’t ruin my clothing to come see just anyone, job be damned” she asked him while slightly chuckling, taking in his facial expression.   His brows had reach all the way into his hairline at her confession and the beginnings of a blush was starting on his cheeks.

"Then why? I was here with you, willing to… he's dead, surely I... why couldn't you," he said his brain barely functioning. "Why does this hurt so much?" he implored her as his pain, loneliness, and slight anger threatening to overwhelm his already confused brain.

Tired, he was so tired. Couldn't he just rest? She didn't want him; she was lying out of guilt. No one did.

"Because you lost so much, so much was demanded for you to surrender. The only things you had left were your body and your heart" she said handing him his bathrobe and put her arms around him after she helped him into it. "You've never had feelings for anyone on any romantic level" she said.

Suddenly he turned around and glared at her hard.

"I didn't give a fuck about my virginity" he said defensively. _Until now_ his brain supplied. "Beside how did you expect coitus to be achieved when a person doesn't like to be touched?" He asked her in a much more reasonable tone of voice.

"I just assume you overcame that for some reason. A person's first time should be special, the more experienced person should see to that. I do care for you. It was my own blindness that made me do what I did. I want you in every way possible, physically and emotionally. All of you" she all but pleaded as she softly advanced on him.

"Do not toy with me" he said as firmly as he could, though not feeling it as that feeling inside him began to warm and spread throughout his extremities as if he’d be frozen and was now thawing. "I'm not someone who needs to be coddled."

"You're hurting and I want to make things right between us. I want to be with you, not just as your lover, but as your life partner, more perhaps in the future if you will let me be that. I know you already care for me as I do you" she said, careful not to use the L word; he certainly wasn't ready to hear it yet.

"I've never been with anyone" he stated as his heart began to beat again in double time.

"Every relationship takes getting used to, we'll go as slow as you need to; as slow as molasses if necessary until you feel emotionally secure" she said taking his hands.

"I-" he said and then shivered when she hugged him and with a hitch in his breath, he hugged her back. "But you're the marrying kind who wants children.  I…do not know if I can offer that to you, not with my enhancements.  If I can, with you, would not be averse to it" he said calmly but honestly.   She leaned back and looked at him with so much love in her own eyes that he almost reared back with shock. Was it possible?

"As long as I have you, I'll be happy" she said and leaned forward and captured his lips with her own and he was struck dumb.   This wasn't a kiss of surprise like their first or their second hungry one. This was gentle and soft with a hint of desire that made his lonely heart skip a beat. Love. He'd never known any and now it was being offered to him. He could feel his confusion and hurt washing away to be replaced by feeling of tenderness that were foreign to him as the heavens themselves.

"Tifa" he said frantically, feeling like he was drowning.

"I'm here, I'm with you, and you are mine" she said in between kisses.  It was like his icy demeanor shattered to be replaced by raw hunger as he kissed her again and again. Gently she pushed him back. "Let's satisfy your physical hunger before we satisfy your sexual one" she teased him. "Now brush your hair while I set the table, oh and do your wind spell" she ordered him.

She sat there drinking a glass of wine and refilled his plate three times before his hunger was satisfied.

 "You've lost weight; looks we have to build you back up" she looked thoughtful at him as she took his hand in a such an easy way that was now familiar but still felt a little odd.

"Do I look undernourished?" he asked her with a frown, knowing of his mistreatment of his body due to stress, sadness, and just missing her.

"You look perfect to me; we can wait to make love if you want" she said to him.

"I don't know how. I mean that time, it was spontaneity.  I just felt it, the call to have you" he said blushing at the memory and she found his naivety endearing.

"Consider that to be fast food compared to a well spread buffet where you get to sample what you want at your own pace. Not saying that fucking is out of the question, but people do what they are in the mood to do and angry sex always works" she said.

"What is angry sex?" he asked her with a eyebrow lifted.

"It where you have sex during a fight, it is usually the precursor to make up sex. I'm sure we'll be having plenty of both with our tempers. Now leave the dishes for the morning, you look exhausted" she said taking his hand and drawing him towards his bedroom.

"Do you still want to make love?" he asked her almost shyly.

"Of course. I want to consummate our new relationship, so lie back on the bed and don't move" she said, slipping his bathrobe from him and he looked at her in a nervous way but did.

He watched as she slipped out of her burgundy colored top and pushed down her slim fit black jeans, revealing her hot pink matching underwear set, she reached back and undid her bra and let it fall from her and her bust barely moved, with an almost erotic wiggle she pushed her panties down her legs. She crawled into bed so she just hovered over him, her soft nipples just brushing his hard chest.

 Leaning over, she kissed him playfully nibbling on his bottom lip and pulling back before gently kissing her way down the hard planes of his chest as if marking him as her property. He wondered at her destination and his eyes grew wide as she approached his already aroused member. Surely she wasn't.... was thought his last thought before he was engulfed in her suckling mouth, all reason fled as the movements of her mouth on him made him writhe uncontrollably as her one of her small hands tickled his balls that spiked his arousal and with a cry, he came and she swallowed him.

"I'm sorry" he said, realizing that she had received no pleasure from the act

"Don't worry, I'll get my thrills on round two, that one was just for you. Q&A shall begin after we make love for real and don't feel afraid to ask anything, no matter how silly" she said lowered her head to get him ready for seconds and his eyes clenched shut while his pale cheeks flushed.  

Their love play was soft, sensual and gentle, learning how to best pleasure their partner and exploring lots of positions. Sephiroth had never felt anything like it, the hands on his body were soothing, yet excited him, touching him gently and almost worshipfully as Tifa's gasped his name as the cusp of each of her orgasms. He never wanted it to end but soon his own crisis became imminent and he pulled her tightly to him as possible when his hot burst filled her, then something happened that startled the stoic man; he burst into tears.

Tifa reached down and drew a blanket over them, enveloping them both and held him as he sobbed silently and uncontrollably.

"I apologize.  I don't know why I am reacting this way. You must think me weak" he said, his voice jerking with each sob as she stroked his hair from his face and kissed away each tear.

"Sex is an emotional experience. You've never felt this way before, you have emotions going all over the place, it's just another type of release. It's perfectly normal, just let it out and we'll worry about it only if you cry afterwards _every_ time you have sex" she assured him, figuring that the small joke would make him feel slightly less embarrassed and soothed him until he stopped.

"Now what?" he asked her after he had calmed again.

"I move in with you and Ms. Snazzypants of course and I keep working" she said.

"What of Cloud and his memory?" He asked her, looking at her suspiciously.

"That is exactly what he is, but a wonderful but past memory from my youth. Everything I had of his I have that was spoken of his on the way back to his mother's place. Well except for his motorcycle, but I have to figure out how to courier that back," she explained.

"I didn't know you rode one" he said.

"Only once in a while, I could take you for a ride before I send it back if you want" she offered. "You'd have to ride bitch of course" she teased him.

"Thanks, I'll pass" he said suddenly realizing who his late night visitor had been.

"So what do you think of my suggestion?" she asked him.

"Do as you wish.  It seems since you’ve stepped into my life, you have taken all sorts of liberties that I find I cannot seem to deny you, but would have killed a lesser man for" he mused, and she again crossing a barrier, punched him in the arm playfully, though it had some power.  Now he was convinced she had had hand to hand combat training.  He would test that theory about her soon.  She could make for an excellent sparring partner.

"We clearly don't do separation well, that is when doubts about each other begin. Besides, if you're determined to stay here, I shall to. Is that alright?" she asked him.

"I would like you being here with me, even it means having to live with your cat" he said and she kissed him again. "I didn't know sex could feel like that" he admitted, feeling embarrassed but at the same time, safe was the only word he could think of as she smiled at him and held him like he was the most precious thing in the world.

"We're just getting started, we can try anything you want, within reason of course" she said.

He looked at the beautiful woman in his arms and realized, he had a girlfriend; she was his! He couldn't believe it as he pictured introducing her as such. He would so have to update his facebook status so his friends would know......all four of them including, Genesis, Vincent and Zack and Aerith!

 "What did you think I was thinking? he asked her.

"Well I was wondering if you have a kink, besides a hair fetish" she said winding a strand of his hair around one finger.

"I just like long hair" he objected.

"Sure" she said, sounding smug.

"I honestly don't really know much about kinks" he said, thinking about the purple nightie he planned to ask her to wear for him at a later time, for now he was just enjoying the closeness. Was that a kink he questioned himself?

"Well their are toys, role playing, exhibitionism" she listed off some. "We'll find yours out."

"Do you have one?" he asked her suspiciously.

"Light bondage with silk scarves, minor hair pulling and light spanking" she said and he sat bolt upright at this, blushing at the image.

"Take me on all fours, while pulling on my hair and spanking my bottom and I go nuts" she crudely said and noticed that he was getting hard at the idea.

"Now remember, I only like it light," she said as she settled into position and looked at him flirtatiously over her shoulder with her bottom elevated in the air, suddenly he decided sleep could wait for a bit.

She soon slept contentedly in his arms and he felt a calmness like he never had before, it was like all was right with the world. He had someone who could give him what he had been denied in life and perhaps would have more than one person to care for and to cherish in the future, if he knew Tifa. She was his bright light in a dark universe that made it clear that it didn't give a fuck what happened to him.

With that thought in mind, he drifted off to sleep after snuggling a tad closer to his lover as her soothing body scent heralded him to dreamland. His belly was full, he felt more relaxed than he had in his entire life, and their combined body heat settled over him like a cozy blanket as his eyes nodded shut elated at the idea that he would wake up and she would still be there, oh and possibility do more love making with him, he certainly approved of that idea! His contented smile of bliss was an unusual expression on his face and one he would have hotly denied his features capable of producing if shown photographic evidence.

Tifa stole out of the bed as an exhausted Sephiroth slept to use the washroom and get some water and took out a second bottle to bring to him and put on his nightstand for when he awoke. She had borrowed a t-shirt that hung on her like a dress and thought about texting Genesis to let Vincent and himself know that she and Sephiroth were back together, when a large creature flew by the full moon and seemed it only to have one wing, followed by a large bat winged-creature.

She didn't know if it was Genesis and Vincent or not, but she waved, not concerned if they had been spying. The curtains in Sephiroth's room had been drawn. It certainly wasn't her own angel, the proof of this lay on the bed. In the soft light from the hall, his hair glinted softly against the pale grey sheets and darker comforter that were draped over his pale body, his features almost ethereally beautiful in their repose and his black eyelashes fanned across his cheeks. Setting the water down so as not to disturb him, she lay down beside him and he settled himself against her instinctively like a giant cat, proving himself to be a cuddly sleeper and she just brushed his bangs back and felt happy with her choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Chapter Nine

Vincent peered at his lover in disgust.

They had gone to the circus because Genesis thought it would be whimsical thing to do and two brothers in an aerial act had caught his eye with their powerfully sculpted bodies, long wheat colored hair and sea green eyes.

Over Vincent's objections, Genesis had sent them an invitation to dine with them that evening. Many drinks were tossed down during dinner as the acrobatic men eyed both Vincent and Genesis with appreciation. However, a sober Vincent had declined the offer of one the man and he slept apart from Genesis as he had taken to doing so on nights where he 'entertained.' He retired for the night in a guestroom far into the mansion so he would not have to listen to the sounds of the second person he ever loved being spit roasted by the two, to his squeals of delight.

The next morning, Vincent had roused the hung over performers from his own bed as his lover sprawled in a hung over heap himself, his normally immaculately groomed shoulder length, red-black hair more suited to a scarecrow than a wealthy, desirable man. He was drooling slightly and lightly snoring when Vincent tucked the blankets more firmly around him with a heavy heart.

He served breakfast to Genesis's temporary lovers from the night before and was polite to them, but firmly ushered them from their home as he paid for a cab to return them to the circus.

He got ready for his day and put in his contacts, that rendered his own unusual eye color a muddy brown that Genesis didn't like, and returned to his lover, bringing with him extra strength Tylenol and water and gently, but firmly shook him awake.

"Morning Darling, did you enjoy your night?" the devil may care man asked him, not realizing that he had gotten so drunk that he didn't know that Vincent hadn't partaken of the temptation. 

"I got a nice sleep" he said with tension in his voice that he normally didn't allow the other man to hear and started folding clothes significantly into the suitcases that he had already placed on the floor of their bedroom.

"Are we going somewhere?" he asked him, wondering at his behavior. Vincent wasn't the chatty sort, but how he was acting was truly alarming.

"I'm going somewhere. I'm going home. I'm leaving you Genesis" Vincent said as he firmly shut the one suitcase and turned to look at Genesis.

Suddenly Genesis was up and holding onto him as from behind as if his life depended on it.

 "No you can't leave me. You know I love you" he said with desperation in his voice that he never allowed anyone else to hear. Only Vincent and Sephiroth knew how lonely and frightened he had been after the whole Jenova thing.

He had, after all, been staring mortality down quite literally.

Vincent turned in his arms and almost felt himself cave as the man he loved begged him not to leave.

 "I cannot tolerate it anymore: your whoring around, your constant drinking and partying. How can you be so selfish to expect me to witness your own suicide? I agreed to being your secret lover because I loved you and even went along with what your lifestyle entails, but I will not sit idly by anymore. I promised myself if I ever loved someone again, I would go to any length to retain them, but I need more. I need a promise and commitment. I know you think that is fussy and old fashioned, but that it the way I am, that is how I have always been.  I am much older and I have my set of morals on things.   I'm sorry" he said and gently pressed an almost chaste kiss to his cheek and stepped back.

"No, I can't lose you" Genesis said, not even knowing he was weeping. "I promise I'll stop. I'll turn over a new leaf. No more partying, no other lovers" he practically begged him.

"I've heard that all before. I'm not your secret lover anymore. I don't know why you felt it necessary to keep me a secret in the first place. Why couldn't we at least have told Sephiroth?" Vincent demanded.

"Sephiroth would have figured it out if he wasn't so sexually naïve. I never strove to keep that information from him, it is not my fault that he simply never clued in" Genesis said grumpily.

"If you were truly honest, you would have told him outright. It's not like he has anything against homosexual relationships, he's not that naïve, he was in SOLDIER. Men were getting laid left, right, and center around him.  Tifa had even said that Cloud that _you all_ at a time were vying for his attentions" Vincent snapped, more irritated at that fact than he thought he’d be. 

"I promise to change" Genesis pleaded, really and truly scared that Vincent was going to be no longer a part of his life.  He’d known he was being selfish and knew that a day like this would come along.  Vincent was a romantic lover and a good one.  There was no reason for his blatant ignoring of that fact, yet he did.

"You say that _now_ when you're covered with two men's sweat and sperm? Now you pledge to change when I asked you _not_ to invite them here in the first place to _our_ home? Honestly only you would dare. You have been badgering Sephiroth for years to date and then when he finally does, you flirted with Tifa right in front of him. You truly are a trollop to do that to a friend, to do that right in front of me" Vincent said breaking away from the flaccid embrace of Genesis in disgust as he continued to stuff clothes into his suitcases, true eye color shining through the concealing contacts indicating just how _livid_ he actually was.

"I am not interested in Tifa. As I said, I was just playing on his jealousy a bit to see how far his feelings for her went. You know he's a stunted emotionally. I have no interest in her romantically.  She's the motherly sort that he needs and could probably get her pregnant just by kissing her. Mark my words, the Silver General is going to have a whole army of silver haired rug rats to command soon. She's not the type for me, I'm not the domestic sort and you know it" Genesis said, forgetting who he’d prattled off that very sentence again, and closing his eyes and bowing his head as he reaffirmed all that Vincent had been saying in the last few moments.  He was such human trash.

"But I am; I will not keep playing butler to your lovers or picking you off the floor or listening to anymore excuses for your bad behavior. I don't want to be with a playboy, I want a real relationship. I want a home that I share with that person where I am acknowledged as being with them. I want to settle down and enjoy what I missed out on and if you don't long for that as well, I don't see the point of our being together" he said and turned around and looked at Genesis. "Have a shower and get some clothes on. You smell like a brothel. I will send for the rest of my things and we shall meet when I am ready, to salvage what little we have left of our relationship" he said and turned and left the brokenhearted Genesis, who started sobbing again and collapsed to his knees , but this time there was no one there for him because his selfish acts had driven the only constant in his life away.

Vincent returned home and threw himself into cleaning the dusty converted warehouse where he had made his home in his need for solitude before Genesis's charms had drawn him into his glittering world, if only to dwell on the fringes of his social whirlwind of a life.

He ignored Genesis's phone calls for a week and then finally called him back and invited him to tea. It was a humbler version of Genesis met him and silently followed him into his kitchen. "I've missed you" he simply said, studying the only person he had ever loved in his life,

"I've missed you too but things can't continue the way they are" Vincent replied.

"I want to change; I want you" he said.

"So I can be kept a secret?" Vincent inquired as he politely, but coolly poured the tea.

 "No I want you and you only. Marry me Vincent Valentine" Genesis said sitting forward. "I'll even wear a kimono to honor your Wutaian heritage if you wish" he volunteered.

Vincent's eyes flew open at this, "But you implicitly said you would not commit to anyone" he said and then Genesis leaned over and kissed him.

"I am going to.  I want you, I need you. I want us" he insisted. "No more hiding, you will be the only person in my life. If you want quiet nights with me, I'm yours" he said cupping his cheek.

"No more inebriation, no more strings of lovers?" He asked him.

"Just you" Genesis promised.

"I do" Vincent said with a rare smile. "But just in case you decide to stray" he said as he placed his gun in front of him, pointing it at Genesis as he calmly blew on his tea to cool it.

When the wedding invitation had come in the mail, Tifa’s belongings and a few more joint purchases had been settled into Sephiroth’s manor house and their lives were now shared.  

“Genesis and Vincent Valentine?  Hnn, that does explain Genesis’s newfound love of the darker side of life such as clothing style, hair fashion, and even why he was more…mellow overall.  He has found himself a good fit for his own struggles and Vincent, in him it seems” Sephiroth mused as he looked over the whole invitation that was obviously a joint combination of the pair, being that it had a black and red motif, passing it off to a surprised but excited Tifa.

Tifa had known firsthand from Genesis’s file that she had briefly read, how momentous this was for both men.  She had known that Genesis had commitment issues on a grand scale with everything from careers to love interests.  Vincent Valentine had to be special or rather, he was firm in his advances of Genesis and what he expected in return from Genesis.  She had gotten to Vincent’s much larger, much more protected file and had compared the two from their histories.

Genesis had commitment issues that stemmed from his very conception, as his ‘creation’ was another example of humans who wished to play Goddess.  Genesis and Angeal had been the two other Generals of the SOLDIER program and the ones closest to stay on par with Sephiroth, though he still was superior, he never flaunted it.   They were his closest comrades in arms and friends.

 Well had been.  Genesis was the first to find out that he had been part of the Project G program and it had wreaked havoc on him.  In a highly charged two versus one battle in the simulation room, there began the beginning of the end for Genesis and all he’d known. 

Professor Hollander had overseen Genesis and Angeal’s treatments for Mako, but it had been so much more.  From that fateful day and a small flesh wound, all three of their world’s would be turned upside down.

 Genesis began to degrade.

 He literally began to rapidly age with each passing day, the wound on his shoulder seeping and never closing.  Research and threats brought the truth to the forefront from Hollander, but at the cost of Genesis mind.  Genesis and Angeal had been childhood friends to comrades in arms, to lovers at a time.  When it all came out, it was damning.  Both Genesis and Angeal had been experiments to create the perfect SOLDIER from birth, both injected with JENOVA and Mako at birth, hence their unique attributes of strength, magical use, and dexterity and agility. 

They were marked as failures and as a result, both Genesis and Angeal had a predetermined death sentence on their heads as they would both wither away and die. 

Genesis, much like Sephiroth, had cracked under the immense pressure and killed everyone from their town of Banora and burned it to the ground. 

Angeal in the end wasn’t strong enough. 

Though he went into hiding with Genesis, defecting and leaving Sephiroth alone with Zachary Fair, in the end he couldn’t stand for the thought of being monstrous, something not human.  He committed suicide by SOLDIER, via Zachary Fair.

 He made him put him down like an animal. 

The news only made Genesis rampage more into despair.  Unbeknownst to Genesis, all this information was of course getting back to the Great General Sephiroth, and it was causing its own fissures in his mind, along with the disembodied voice that called to him daily.

 On the day that Sephiroth, Zachary Fair and the now known Cloud Strife as a grunt, were supposed to go to Nibelhiem, Genesis appeared to Sephiroth.  He was absolutely cruel and rabid, calling him a monster as well as he had found out about Sephiroth’s own origins, of which the other man didn’t know at the time. 

While in Nibelhiem, that was the beginning of the darkness for Sephiroth as he too, found out his origins, locking himself away in the old basement library reading misinterpreted information or blatant lies that Hojo had left about his creation and what he was.  That voice though, was very real to Sephiroth and it led him to an underground laboratory, the room was lined with pods that were filled with twisted and wretched men and women that had been exposed to Mako for long periods of time, making them true monsters. Upon Sephiroth’s viewing them, this had put the last crack in his mind and heart from the sheer _fear_ that Genesis had been right. 

Genesis had fled and went into hiding, only to be captured by Shinra forces and taken directly to Hojo’s labs.  There, yes, he was cured of his degradation, but at what cost to his body, mind, and even very spirit?

 Hojo had him laid out on a steel table like so much meat daily it seemed, as he poked, prodded, and invaded his most private areas.

 Sephiroth had saw the plaque above the main door to which the pods lead: JENOVA.The voice was insistent and promised him the world; the world in ruin at his feet and he followed.  The rest was history.

Genesis had finally decided to escape from his confines.  He’d found that Zachary Fair, Angeal’s old student, had also been captured.  With his remaining strength he’d broken them both free.  Zachary had immediately gone into hiding at Genesis’s urging and he felt like he wasn’t going to survive despite being healed.  The constant experiment and tearing down to build back up to his body had taken his toll.  He’d made one last prayer to the Goddess before he passed and found instead of being submersed in the Lifestream, Genesis was encapsulated in Mako.

 Minerva herself, Gaia’s avatar, had secured his crystal within the Forgotten Capital of the Ancients, where he stayed, healing physically and mentally, and waited.

Vincent was just the opposite of Genesis in every way it seemed.  He was the darkness and serene to Genesis’s light and feistiness.  Vincent Valentine had been experimented on- by Sephiroth’s sadistic parents.  

Vincent had once been obsessed with his love for one Lucrecia Crescent, one of the major doctor’s on the Project S program, and Sephiroth’s birth mother.  There had been a time where he had felt he was in love with the woman, even though one tragic event to another, including the death of his father, Grimoire Valentine, he still stuck by her side.  In the end his love had been thrown aside as well, Tifa drawing comparisons to what had transpired with Sephiroth and herself.  It had all been thrust back at the man’s face and ultimately she chose Soji Hojo, the main professor of the project.  Between those two, they sacrificed Sephiroth’s humanity in the womb, never even giving the man a chance at normality.

 Vincent was mutilated and forced to bear entities that would stop his aging and cause him to transform into the beast, which was painful and was taxing on Vincent’s psyche.  Eventually after the birth of Sephiroth and the ultimate death of Lucrecia due to severe Mako poisoning to carry Sephiroth, the experiments to Sephiroth gained in speed and amounts.   Hojo continued his ‘loving care’ with Vincent, and in tiring, cast the man aside literally in a casket to be forgotten in a Materia induced haze for thirty years.  He was found later on a mission on the recon of Nibelhiem…after Sephiroth’s downfall and the town burned.

 Vincent had been stored in one of the warehouses in his coffin.  The fire and jostling had broken the device attached to the mastered Sleep Materia, waking him and on consciousness, he fled. 

He hid along the countryside in caves and crannies and allowed the more sentient of the creatures within him to allow for flight at night.  He came upon a desolate Bone Village.  While there, something called to him from the forest that was ahead.  He entered the forest, not knowing it was a maze for others, yet the entity inside him help lead him where he was to go.  He happened upon an entry to an ancient city with white trees along its path.  As he walked deeper in, the call became insistent.

He happened upon a conch shelled home that he took refuge in from the local monsters at night.  Finally, going to the lower section, he found a path opened to him.  Within it led him to what looked like the abandoned cities capital.  Following the call, he finally came upon a lake with an unusual crystal floating above it.  With his enhanced sight, he could see a male was within with bright flaming hair and clothing, looking merely asleep. 

Curious to Vincent, the call stopped after reaching this point. 

He gently sat at the edge of the water, taking in the man in the crystal.  There was an insistence from the entity within him to be bared to the world and it startled Vincent.  He tried to fight the transformation since he didn’t know its intentions but eventually lost the battle with his body to the entity named Chaos.

Once Chaos had transformed, it stretched its wings and gently floated over to the crystal containing the man.  Once in front of the crystal, it touched it, surprisingly causing a connection to the man within the crystal and the entity.

Within Vincent’s mind where he was banned, the man was projected into his mindscape with him.

This was the beginning of the meeting of Vincent Valentine and Genesis Rhapsodos.  Chaos had become a medium of sorts with the crystal and the man within and remained suspended by it, eventually wrapping its wings along the crystal, _caressing_ it.  Within the crystal was a different story.  The man, Genesis proved to be just as wary of the other man in his mindscape.  At first sight, Vincent tried to draw Death Penalty on the man, but forgot where they were and simply growled inhumanly at him. 

Genesis was not fazed surprisingly.  He had the nerve to look petulant at Vincent for bringing him to whatever place this was.  Eventually words were spoken, of course flippantly by Genesis, demanding to know where he was and how the other man had come upon his crystal.  Bickering was had, mostly on Genesis side as Vincent had found this was one of the original Generals that had served…with Sephiroth, his old lover’s child. 

Vincent came at another angle and began to pick Genesis’s brain in the only way he knew, the TURK way.  Vincent was un-self-assuming but got “interrogations” done.  Vincent found that Genesis was also a survivor of Hollander…and Hojo.  There had been more but many when it came to light, had chosen death not knowing there was a better way.  After time had passed, some of the smarminess of Genesis seemed to just evaporate and a few walls had come down for Vincent.  They begin to have in depth conversations about their survival away from the one called Hojo. Other feelings had been to become involved.  Vincent had been talking to Genesis about his trials when again the entity called Chaos alerted him someone had discovered them but seemed to have no ill will.  With a flash, Genesis was contained back into his crystal and Vincent along the shore of the lake.  Genesis locked back in his own mind, slammed his closed fist against the prison of his mind.  He found himself…startled that the enigma of Vincent Valentine was now gone from him.

Another survivor named Aerith Gainsborough had been hired by the new WRO and protected by them since she’d went into hiding.  It seemed that she had become an item with Zachary Fair, who also had followed her on this mission on the insistence that the Planet had been calling to two others of her fold:  Genesis and Vincent. 

Zachary Fair was excited to come along.  He was familiar with Vincent Valentine; he had been his savior from old Shinra’s and Hojo’s grasp.

Vincent stood pensive by the lake still looking at Genesis in his crystal. His head whipped around to the sounds of coming footsteps and with his uncanny reflexes, he wraith away into the trees, awaiting the people coming towards them. Vincent didn’t recognize the young lady but did immediately recognize Zachary.  With the same grace as he got up there, he came down and looked at the pair cautiously.  The young woman, Aerith, moved towards the crystal and much like Chaos had did, placed her hands along it while Zachary hung back and observed. 

The crystal, under the small woman’s hands, began to give way!  She seemed to be praying deeply and her and the crystal glowed with a power, one that almost made Vincent come to stop her, fearing she was harming the man.  With one more push of power from her, the crystal cracked and Genesis spilled out into the lake still unconscious.  Vincent was alarmed but Aerith moved to spell Genesis so that he would float above the water, looking merely sleep.  Vincent did act then and moved to gather the other man into his arms and onto the dried ground, Genesis’s head in his lap and Zachary and Aerith looked on.  After a tense moment, Zachary found he voice stating how they had found them and what their purpose was.

Ever since that day, Vincent seemed to be attached to the red head and when he did finally regain consciousness at the new WRO, manned by no other than Rufus Shinra, the two seemed to pick right up where there left off in conversation though they had more to talk about, it seemed with the other survivors and the surprise that Sephiroth had survived as well.

The rest was history.

Tifa shuddered at the combined emotions that spread through her.  Her mind had moved a mile a minute within just holding that invitation:  from seeing the downfall of not one, but three great men, one to death.  She’d even relived Vincent Valentine and Genesis Rhapsodos lives through her knowledge and his one on one account.

Sephiroth saw Tifa’s face as it contorted to sadness and then back again to a content smile, and came to her side, worried he’d done something or that she was upset about the news in some way. 

She gently dismissed him stating that she was just thinking of the past they had all had to overcome and how they were all much better for it.

 Vincent and Genesis’s story was like something out of Sleeping Beauty, if Aurora was a 6’0 ft. redhead that was brash and had to be made to come to heel by a Prince that could turn into the equivalent of Maleficent.

She laughed at the comparisons.

 Sephiroth was now truly concerned since she was keeping all this to herself and seemed…unhinged without an explanation about what was going on.  He was a very logical person and needed that to make sense of things and she knew that.

She decided to share with him exactly how the other two had met, since she was certain Genesis had never really told Sephiroth, thinking he wouldn’t understand or even care due to his naivety in the love department.

Sephiroth could not get over what Tifa had told him and felt extremely embarrassed that he hadn't clued into the true nature of his friend's involvement, they must think him so naïve indeed. Tifa had said they were probably keeping it a secret because of Genesis's playboy ways. Not that they didn't trust him with the knowledge or thought it would effect their relationship with him in any way.

Still Sephiroth felt a little hurt by this.

 Tifa had guessed that and hugged the brooding man. "Perhaps they just weren’t ready to come clean with you yet? They probably needed some time to establish their relationship as we did at first as well. They are probably surprised you turned out to be straight" she teased him, giving him a sound kiss. He just rolled his eyes at this, getting used to her touchy feely ways.    To be with Tifa meant you were her personal petting zoo when you weren't being her amusement park ride. Not that he was complaining.

"Why does everyone always assume I'm gay?" He groused, still a little irked at his friends' omission.

She examined him, "you look too be pretty to be straight" she observed and laughed at his expression, he did not look amused. "Tsk, tsk, you shouldn't scowl like that, it ruins your pretty face."

He got up earlier than his girlfriend, even earlier than usual as he they both had a busy day ahead of them. He pulled on a pair of sleep pants and a t-shirt and gave food to Ms. Snazzypants and gave her a pat what made her purr, first checking to see that Tifa couldn't see the fact that her cat was growing on him.

The coffee was brewing when Tifa exited their room and sleepily joined him at the table, he froze.   She wore _that_ purple nightie. 

"Why are you wearing that?" He asked her trying to level his voice because he felt he’d been caught being the world’s biggest lecher and also amazingly turned on all at the same time.

"I had to wear something" she said playing indifferent, as it had been discovered that his kink was lingerie on her.

"How about you wear only a leather collar locked onto your neck that I have a key for?" he all but purred.

"What are you saying?" She said, backing away until she was trapped against the table in mock fear but with an eyebrow quirked at him in mischief.

"I shall relieve you of this wonderful amusement" he purred at her giving her a look that used to strike fear into the hearts of his men. He watched her face animated by their coitus from where she lay on their kitchen table as he rhythmically pumped himself within her liquid tightness while he held her legs aloft by her ankles. He found her mild SM kink fascinating and was happy to learn that he had been included in those fantasies for a long time. She had finally come clean about her teenaged fantasy life that featured him, including her sneak attack hug on him years before. Now his uniform had been repurposed for a worthy cause and it made their romantic life that much more delicious.  "If you want to cum, you have to beg for it" he said from where he seemed to loom over her as his finger lightly stroked her clit as he moved in her.

"Please let me cum" she begged him from where he teased her and he started hammering himself inside her until both of them peaked in unison. He leaned over and kissed her, smiling at her.

"Didn't you get enough last night?" he asked her.

"I just wanted to continue it a bit more this morning" she teased him back and he cleaned her with a hand towel and handed her his t-shirt to put on.

"Okay, now you're making us late. I'll make breakfast while you take a shower and get ready" he insisted, giving her bottom a swat and she just laughed and ran off to do so.

He cleaned the table top to disinfect it and put on the rice to boil while chopping the vegetables up and took out the meat he had chopped the night before. She rejoined him wearing a pair of jeans and a plaid work shirt, similar to the way he normally dressed. He loved her just as much when she wore her suits and pumps with her prim bun when she went to work, but loved having her more causal on weekends and having her to himself. Her legs were meant for jeans.

 "Will I do?" she asked him. 

"You look adequate" he said dismissively, earning him another shoulder punch and he smirked back at her.

"You're in a cocky mood today" she said and then glared as his Aero spell blew her hair forward and he chuckled at her ‘Cousin It’ look, until she flipped it behind her head. 

"I'm just in a good mood" he said as he handed her usual portion of food and filled up a platter of his own. They quickly ate and then he padded to get dressed himself and tie his hair back.

She smiled softly at how his frame had filled out again after he had almost starved himself during their breakup, he was much better now, a lot more confident and seemed to have developed a sense of humor that was a lot more relaxed than his used to be.

"Are you humming?" she asked him suspiciously as he drove her towards the tenant farming community.

"No, I don't do such things" he said dismissively.

"You've been in a good mood since you had your visit with Yuffie yesterday" she said. 

"I'm having an affair with her. Didn't you know?" he answered flippantly.

She just laughed at the idea. She knew he was probably with the most faithful man on the planet, his former aversion to touch had been relaxed in her case, but only for her. "Sure, that's it. It must have been some visit" she said with amusement in her voice.

He studied her as her hair blew in the breeze coming in from the open window and jouncing with each bump of his truck. He hid a secret smile from her and thought about the ring box he had secreted in the glove box. Yes, he had met with Yuffie the day before, but had insisted on meeting outside of her office because he knew from Tifa trying on Yuffie's own engagement ring, that they had the same ring size. Yuffie had been shocked when he took her into the jewelry store but then got so excited at being the hand model for Tifa's ring, that he got caught up in her excitement as well as he tried ring after ring on her. They had both argued the merits of them all, until finally, they settled on one. Yes, General Sephiroth Crescent, would-be god, would-be planet destroyer, the reclusive introvert and sworn bachelor had bought an engagement ring with plans to marry Tifa Lockhart.

Sephiroth knew that Tifa was deliberately taking their relationship slow because of him, but he didn't see the point in waiting, he had found the perfect woman for him, so he had the ring ready. He just had to think of the proper way to give it to her. He also had decided he would wait until after Vincent's and Genesis's wedding, it would be cruel to steal their thunder with their own life changing announcement.

Tifa smiled at how Sephiroth was the natural leader of the community as they looked over the blueprints for the barn they were building that Sephiroth had designed himself. Yes, they were having an old fashioned barn raising while she and the other women cooked the feast for afterwards. The proud farmers had insisted that they build it themselves for their friend as he was in the hospital and his barn had been flattened by a tornado. They liked Sephiroth and looked up to him because he had improved their lives in every way once he was alerted to his responsibilities. His distant cousin had been the ruler of them and had collected their rent without giving anything back repair-wise, not even offering them lumber to make improvements to their places themselves.

"He worn fancy clothes and sat on his huge lordly ass and drank himself like a lord to death" according to the men. Sephiroth had listened to his in amusement and assured them that he himself was not a Lord as he had refused the title.

However, Sephiroth wasn't one to shirk responsibilities, so he had made all the necessary improvements to the farms, the school, library and church and then personally paid to update all their farming equipment to improve their lives and as result, no one had ever reported his status of not being deceased. Sensing he was at loose ends after a life spent having people tell him what to do, they took him under their collective wing and started to teach him farming when he had inquired about their way of life, genuinely curious. So it was there he learned basis carpentry, plowing and planting, how to deal with domestic animal and various other tasks that he could never see himself doing. He also learned that such tasks were a dirty business and never wear anything you don't want soiled and completely altered his wardrobe.

Finally, it was decided that he had to learn to drive as the busy men couldn't keep on giving him rides and knew that him using his wings other than at night was too risky. 

So the hummer truck that he owned now, was produced for him and he quickly learned to drive by being taken around the dirt roads of his own property until he mastered the skill.  The Hummer had been owned by a farmer's uncle who had passed away and the community gave it to Sephiroth as a gift to thank him for his generous treatment of them. This he had refused, instead he had paid the farmer twice what it was worth.

He had it taken to the local garage for tweaking and painting to his vision of it and a new Sephiroth was born. He had even taken to dressing like everyone else, finding the casual attire more comfortable then the leathers he had worn half of his life.

The diminutive Mrs. Campbell smiled as she watched Tifa cast glances of admiration at how Sephiroth had removed his shirt as he hammered nails into the fresh boards he had donated for the project. She was peeling potatoes while Tifa was squeezing lemons for the endless pitchers of lemonade that the men were drinking in the heat of the sun.

"You know, just because you can’t have a huge public wedding, doesn't mean that we couldn't throw one here and you can invite anyone you like" she suggested to the obviously smitten young woman.

"We're taking it slow; we've only been together a couple of months now anyway" she said.

"You’re living together, how it that taking it slow? Back in my day that was called giving away the milk for free" she razed her.

"Well, it would be nice. But I can wait" she said.

"Okay, just saying. We would be happy to throw a wedding for the Lord and Lady of the manor" she teased the affable woman. Wondering if she should offer her the use of her wedding dress, yes it was old fashioned and would need adjusting for Tifa's unique body, but it was still beautiful. She secretly wished that Tifa was her daughter at how nice she was to everyone and thought her the perfect foil to Sephiroth's more closed off personality. Yes Mrs. Campbell had been blessed with five children, but none of them had been the daughter she longed for. 

"We're hardly royalty" she said with a giggle, but did steal another peek at him.

Tifa loved the sense of community as she sat at the long scarred tables that had been dragged out for the occasion as the exhausted workers drank gallons of lemonade and helped themselves to the giant platters of food that had the tables groaning. It was at the end of the day and the dusk was just about to set in. She helped serve everything, then took her place beside Sephiroth, noting that he had only taken food portions that would satisfy a normal man and thought of what to offer him later. He had been told all of his life, to eat only how he normally would to in private and never in public so he wouldn't draw more attention to his uniqueness. 

 However, Mrs. Campbell wasn't having that and added three times the amount to his plate. "Honestly Sephiroth, we don't expect you to starve yourself after all the hard work you did. Eat" she ordered him and with a sheepish grin he did. He had met drill sergeants less formidable then Mrs. Campbell.

"So will you be in our wedding party?" Genesis asked Tifa and Sephiroth by video conference a couple of weeks later.

"Of course I will be your best man" Sephiroth promised him. 

"Great, Vincent wants Tifa to be his best gal" Genesis said, clapping his hands.  "Oh and Aerith and Zack have RSVP’d."

"I would be honored" she said.

"Great, I picked out your clothes already. Wait, is that a knock at your door?" he innocently asked them and Sephiroth came back carrying two boxes that a driver had dropped off.

"How did you know we were going to say yes?" he asked him. 

"My Hero, you're a boring couple who spends your spare time play Farmer and Mrs. Brown. What else would you be doing that night?" he asked him dismissively, shaking his bangs out of his eyes.

"Genesis, you're horrible" Tifa said with a laugh.

"Horribly good, that's why Vincent is marrying me" he said, clearly preening at this.

"Okay time to play dress up, Sephiroth try your tuxedo on" he ordered him and Sephiroth rolled his eyes playfully at Tifa and went to put it on. Both Genesis and she praised him when he returned wearing the black tux, with red vest and bowtie.

"You do clean up well" he observed. "Your turn Tifa" he ordered her and she was gone for a few minutes and came back wearing a black and red corset, red lace topped black stockings, fastened with a matching garter belt and panties and a confused look on her face. Sephiroth's eyes got huge. "Well let's see how beautiful you look" Genesis said to the room in general and both shocked people.

Sephiroth turned livid green slit eyes on the screen and said," I think not. What sort of wedding are you having where you expect her to dress like _this_?" he demanded in a voice that could have frozen a humming bird in flight.

Genesis looked surprised as how perturbed his friend seemed, recognizing when his friend was going into murderous intent deep freeze mode. "Don't you like it? I had it especially tailored to her curves. Do you think it to be too low cut?" He inquired, completely confused what had set him off.

"You think?" he said as Tifa blushed and refused to come into Genesis's view.

"Do you not like asymmetrical skirts? The original design was meant to be strapless, but I had them add straps and included foundation garments with you in mind for later" he said.

Just then there was another knock at the door and Sephiroth went to answer it, "sorry, I forgot to give you this box" the driver apologized and Tifa giggled at the mistake as Sephiroth helped her into the tasteful red and black gown that fit her to perfection and all three roared with laughter at what had been assumed.

The day of the wedding found Tifa under the weather as she had been for about a week and only her steely determination not to disappoint the couple made her push on.  Sephiroth had explained the night before that they might not be coming and didn't want her to go, hating to see her suffering and wondering why her scent had changed slightly. Genesis, told him that he would have the actual wedding later on then scheduled for that day of if need be and would keep their guests entertained until they arrived, wanting them there. So barf bags were packed and conveniently placed for her in the truck and Gravol and ginger ale purchased, they off they drove to the Valentine-Rhapsodos mansion where they were hosting their wedding.

 Rufus was beside himself in glee that his plan had worked.  Not only were now the two main survivors _marrying,_ his last grouchy one was on the way to wedded bliss as well.  He was in such a mood that he produced the best wines and finest alcohol from his family’s cellar from his own mansion.  On top of that…Reeve had accepted his date request.  Things were going according to plan and he sat back in his large chair for a moment and just allowed himself to gloat like he had never done before.  Once he’d gotten over how amazing he was, he began to get dressed.

Tifa was beyond excited at her dress that had been given to her and turned once, twice in front of the mirror admiring her dress.  It was mainly a heavy black satin material with a narrow red border on the straps, top and bottom, it was shorter at the front than the back and had a red lining that matched the border. Sephiroth came and joined her, grabbing her from behind and kissed her bare shoulder also admiring the sight.  Trying to conceal a gleam in his eyes as he pictured how her elated she would be at their own wedding.

The morning had started out…adventurous but they knew they had to be at the wedding since Sephiroth was acting as Genesis’s best man and Tifa, a sort of best man to Vincent as she was giving him away and standing up with him. With her drinking gravol and eating crackers with copious amounts of ginger ale, had managed to settle her stomach well enough.

With a final correction to Sephiroth’s bowtie, they left the changing rooms they had been appointed and continued to the wedding chamber.

With the hustle and bustle of the wedding being setup going on around the house, no one noticed that the grooms were missing and time was getting close to the actual wedding.  No one noticed the ominous sounds coming from the master bedroom.

“Ah so good… It’s so glorious! It’s like you are trying to castrate me it’s so tight and wet” Genesis let off in a peel of heavy panting and sighs.  Below his pistoning hips, was a very pinned and very turned on Vincent Valentine, who was scrabbling at the duvet and _audibly and loudly moaning_ and crying out with each thrust into his body. 

With lightning fast reflexes, Genesis had turned and thrown Vincent back on the bed to face him, never disconnecting, never losing his momentum.  At the new angle, Genesis was ravishing his prostate to which Vincent pressed the back of his head in the bunched up and strewn covers and cried out with each knock internally from Genesis’s own generous endowment.

Vincent sat up and began raking his nails down Genesis back, turning the redhead on even more with each swipe at his spine and shoulder blades.  Neither had been paying attention to the time but were thoroughly taken with this action.  The guests had trickled in and taken their seats. 

Vincent had only gone to check on Genesis, knowing he shouldn’t peek at him before the wedding and had been snatched unceremoniously into the room and kissed silly.  Both had spent an evening together before the wedding.  Drinking had been so copious that even Vincent had been hung over. Genesis surprisingly had denied having a bachelor party, surprising both himself and Vincent.  He stated that Vincent’s company was enough for him.  And that had been the evening until Vincent stumbled to the guest room so that the next day they could be allowed to prepare in private, revealing each other their new tuxedos at the wedding. 

Alas that was not what had happened and apparently Genesis had woken up extremely frisky and now had a squalling lap full of Vincent that he was drilling into, as the older man had secured him into a firm embrace with an arm wrapped around one shoulder and the other arm around Genesis's neck. They all but devoured each other’s mouths as the sounds they were making were climbing in volume and Genesis becoming frantic in his pacing, driving the dark haired male insane.

Below the wedding party had all arrived and the music had begun playing, performed by Aerith at a baby grand piano, but there was no sign of the grooms.  Sephiroth ever tactful in a leftover way from being General was becoming somewhat worried, though he did not show it as he stood across from Zach as they waited for their grooms in question.  Sephiroth knew it had taken fifteen minutes for everyone to get seated.  They should have been here by now.  He told Zach that he would go to look for the wayward grooms, and received a roger dodger in return from a cheerful Zachary.

Rufus simply glanced down at his Rolex and back at the podium where the men were supposed to be.  He wasn’t really all that concerned about them as he was about how to get the shuffling with nerves Reeve to calm himself, while sitting by him.  He did notice that Reno and Elena had taken a seat together and Rude had brought his date, a lovely lady with darkened caramel skin and sun bleached blonde hair and beautiful hazels.

  _Good for him, he isn’t weird_ Rufus chuckled to himself sneaking a flask out of his side pocket in his immaculate white suit, causing Reeves eyes to slightly bug out to which all Rufus did after taking his own swig of his hidden bourbon, was offer it to him.   He noticed that Tseng and Yuffie were not present.  Whatever.  Tseng was a big boy that could handle himself. Yuffie was annoying so there was no love lost for her not to be present as they had broken up. After pausing and initially going to turn it down, Reeve reached out a tentative hand to take the flask.  Rufus simply smile his shit eating grin as he knew he had the _good stuff_ in that flask and if it didn’t relax Reeve to a puddle of goo, he just has to work at him-a different way after the festivities were done. 

Sephiroth started to search for the men of the hour when the undercurrent of the cooks and final touches being made in the kitchen for the after party/reception, he heard it.  There were strange noises definitely happening and with Sephiroth’s hearing he was tracking it though he had never been in this part of the house before.

Genesis had changed Vincent’s position once more with the man facing the entry of the door, on his knees in the bed as he continued to pound and jostle the older nonstop as he held Vincent’s arms at the bend of bicep of each as an anchor to thoroughly screw him.

Vincent was a mess.  His normal pallid white skin had from head to toe flushed in a strawberries and cream color, burning down his body.  His ruby eyes had darkened to garnet and were slits and though they faced straight ahead, he wasn’t seeing anything, truly encompassed in what he was feeling.  His hair was a mane of sable, truly mussed and head was thrown back, the full column of his throat bared.  His mouth was slackened and he looked as if he would drool at any moment as unbidden sounds continued to escape his mouth. 

Sephiroth stood in front of the master bedroom having tracked the noises there.

Genesis hit a fever pitch and began building for cresting, Vincent right on the line.  No sooner than Genesis had reached down and grabbed Vincent’s turgid and leaking length as he began losing his rhythm to the feeling building, Sephiroth knocked, the sound obviously going unheard among the grunts and sighs and outright screams.

Just as the master door parted to admit Sephiroth, one of two things happened: Vincent slammed his eyes closes and _howled_ out his end, his essence flying free from his length to the side of Sephiroth’s shoe and Genesis let off the _vilest yet sexiest_ string of Banorian curses he had ever heard or expected from him as he too met his cresting. Vincent was now falling face forward into the covers on the large King sized bed and panting as if his life depended on it, as his naked back showed his working ribs inhaling and exhaling.

Sephiroth knew the polite thing was to look away, he couldn’t.  No matter what he felt for Tifa, which was stronger and wider than any ocean. The vision of his _friend taking his other colleague_ did make for a beautiful scene.  He could feel his own light pink burning at his cheeks though he willed his face neutral.

Sephiroth had been frozen to the spot, looking at the sight before him and began to panic, thinking something wrong with him for not simply _just turning around._ Genesis’s laugh almost made him almost jump out of his own skin, making him scowl then finally look away as Genesis spoke. 

Vincent looked up and upon, landing his now trying to focused eyes on Sephiroth, he wished he hadn’t and buried his face in the duvet, his skin now burning an almost cherry pink in embarrassment knowing that if Sephiroth was up here, time must have gotten away from them.  He had only wanted to check on damnable Genesis, not be late for his own nuptials and DEFINITELY not be caught in such a compromising position!

“Are you enjoying the view?” Genesis stated as he rolled to the edge of the bed with a fluidity he shouldn’t have had, to a still bewildered Sephiroth for his conflicting emotions inside and earning another inhuman growl from a highly embarrassed, highly upset, and highly jealous spouse to be.

Sephiroth had his face angled downwards, cheeks still burning.  “I came to find your whereabouts as your _wedding_ started a full”, Sephiroth glanced at his watch, “fifteen minutes ago.  The guests are already here and seated-and waiting.

At this Vincent did jump up, covering his nudity as he went and brushed past the man in the room while Genesis looked completely unapologetic as he began shuffling towards the bathroom.  Over his shoulder he threw “Ah but I have never had that privilege of _topping_ Mr. Valentine, that was a true gift of the Goddess and who knows when that might happen again, marriage or no.  Besides, my dear friend, I would give my _life_ all over again if it meant seeing you blush so prettily.  Someone has bi-sexual tendencies.  Please do ask your Tifa of that will you?” he said going and showering and putting on his tuxedo as expedient and neatly as possible.

Sephiroth had stepped back into the hallway as Genesis did his finishing touches, only for the guest room to open and Vincent awkwardly walk out, trying to keep his face neutral and still slightly scowling as he mumbled something to Sephiroth and walked down to meet the judging faces.  Vincent had registered that the door had to have opened at the time he had heralded his coming.  Excellent he thought sourly to himself.

Genesis had finally also made it down the stairs into the main hall and was placed at the front by Sephiroth.  No one had to question what had transpired.  Those closest to Vincent knew of Galien Beast and if he wasn’t fighting then…

Every face in the audience had a different look to it.  Some in awe, others blushed furiously while Rufus Shinra simply looked over at a now more compliant Reeve Tuesti and just smiled.  Apparently Yuffie and Tseng had come in a bit later due to flying in and Yuffie’s motion sickness on any flying object, but was just in time for all of the “sound effects” to happen. 

Yuffie had broken in out in a sweat…and a nosebleed right on the spot and Tseng, though sensible, knew he would have to take care of her, in more than one way. Tseng feigned the role of polite fiancé, taking her to the bathroom to tend her random nosebleed.  Reno and Rude and Elena saw the action with he ever watchful eyes, knowing what was going to have to transpire.  Rufus just was tickled pink with everything. As his ex-General stood stoically by a highly happy and excited Genesis, while blushing and his better half had started down the aisle with Tifa on his arm, also blushing, no doubt caught in the act, to which Rufus simply just chuckled.

The wedding went off (after almost being a forty-five minutes behind) without a hitch.  It was a beautiful affair and the vows had been truly written for both men in mind.  As soon as the men had said “I do” and had sealed it with a kiss, Sephiroth still flustered, found Tifa, giving her a kiss on her lips and excused himself to find a bathroom to splash cold water upon his face.  He fumbled for a moment, but found the guest bathroom, only to get another surprise.

There in front of him was a rutting Tseng, who had pinned the small and short Yuffie against the wall.  He had braced her with his one hand and the other was in fist right above her head. She had her head thrown back in euphoria in her small royal purple tube dress, legs tight around his bared hips, his flexing and naked derriere that flexed in and relaxed in time with his thrusts into her, and her light blue underwear dangling on one lone foot.

Again Sephiroth froze and flushed all over again, this time becoming even more aroused at the beautiful couple frantically moving against the wall. 

Tseng knew the door had been opened wide and his eyes locked on the offender only for his glare to evaporate into shock, horror, and now pure sensation as Yuffie locked him within herself as she came all over his throbbing cock, that had broached her womanly region and crying out in a high pitched wail as she did.  He tried to grit his teeth, bite his tongue, anything than be a slave to the warm tight depths that surrounded and strangled his manhood, which ultimately ended in a startled, high pitched yelp and him placing his head into the crook of her shoulder to finish riding out his burst.

Sephiroth simply closed the door.  What was with these people and this rampant sex and him being the one caught finding them?  He knew that Genesis was shameless in his debauchery, but would he ever look at him and his husband the same way again? 

They had been fucking perfect looking rumpled and used.  Then there were these two specimens of Wutaian glory, playing 'hide the sausage’ in the guest bathroom.  He turned from the door and went back to the reception area.  He would just have to make do with all his emotions until he could get Tifa home, or hell, in a dark corner and have his way with her, like everyone else apparently.

Tifa had started to feel a little nauseous as the food was being served.  She had the uncomfortable sensation of her mouth watering, but not in good way.  She was feeling dizzy and too hot at the same time.  Sephiroth had made it back to their guest table and had sat and greeted her again with a kiss on the cheek, all the while he still was blushing.  She’d have to ask him exactly what did he see, since she was well aware of what had transpired; so did most of the guests at the random howl that pierced the music and then silence.

Her stomach began to churn and it was her turn to excuse herself to find a rest room.  She gave Sephiroth a small kiss back on the cheek and began searching for the restroom, putting on a brave face so as not to alarm him. 

Sephiroth had the most irrational thought to warn her to beware of the dangers of the rampant hormones and blatant sexual activity, but thought himself ridiculous and just chalked it up to bad or good fortune, depending on how you wanted to look at it, no pun intended.  He felt it should be safe enough as everyone seemed to be back in attendance, including Tseng and Yuffie at their table and the grooms were at the head table, while Zach shared his fond memories of Vincent and of the later Genesis.

He didn’t notice that Rufus and Reeve were missing.

Tifa slightly swayed and she was worried as she went from possible occupied bathroom entry to entry.  Once she had resolved that she was just going to go into the next bedroom and use one of their bathrooms, she was shocked beyond all her wits.  There, in the room she had randomly picked, were two equally naked men, one she knew too intimately as well.

Before her, among silken sheets and a huge silken canopy curtain, was one Rufus Shinra with his white pristine shirt hanging by his wrists that were secured by his cufflinks, as Reeve was draped along his back and absolutely punishing Rufus’s ass.  Every full and hard thrust into the blonde’s body was fevered and Rufus's body jerked violently with each firm stroke inside him. 

Rufus was trying to slowly move up into a crouching position. Reeve's grip on his hips sliding along his sides, to his arms on, up to his shoulders and bouncing Rufus's bare back against Reeve's lightly haired chest from the steady, rough rhythm happening and never disconnecting, as Rufus struggled to be on his knees.

 Reeve was automatically adjusting and accommodating the movements, while Rufus jostled with each firm slam into him.  Rufus was flushing a bright neon pink from his head to normally pale feet as he abused his kiss-swollen lips, biting them in refusal to cry out. At one spot-on hit to his prostate, he grit his teeth so hard his jaw popped in the pained-pleasure that Reeve Tuesti was giving him, bringing him to the edge of his climax. At three more harsh stabs, Rufus Shinra in all his prissy bitch glory, threw his golden head back, his severe coiffed hair falling around his face and eyes, and _screamed_ his completion. By the way that Reeve had tensed, it was apparent that he had met his nirvana as well.

Tifa blinked slowly at all she’d witnessed in front of her and to her disgust at who it was she’d caught in the act and her to shame, was transparently aroused at the scene of her _boss_ being owned, her stomach and nether region tightened, which had an adverse effect.

Before her mind had fully registered that she could have just backed out of the room as the two men were in euphoria and recovery and therefore, oblivious to her having been there, her shock and the niggling in her stomach made her blurt out words before they actually computed.

“What the actual fuck Rufus!? “she almost squealed in her shock and to her horror rising, intense nausea as she started to gag, her hands immediately covering her mouth at the statement and also _something else rising._

At her voice, both men on the bed registered her for the first time.

 Rufus simply stretched like some large wild cat and turned to her with a wicked smile, having no shame in his nudity as Reeve blushed furiously on his cheeks not hidden by his goatee, scrabbling for a pillow to cover his sensibilities, almost falling out of the bed.  Something odd happened then as Tifa became a blur, running to the restroom in the room with them and vomiting with gusto.

Both men had stilled in the bed, Rufus wrinkling his nose at the sound and Reeve wearing a concerned look, thinking they had scarring Tifa into puking. 

Rufus simply snorted inelegantly. As if him in the throes of passion wasn't majestic as fuck.

A muffled 'oh Goddess' was heard and shortly thereafter the tap to sink was going, splashing water to rinse her mouth and splashing her face, finally Tifa staggered out looking like death warmed over.

The men had placed their slacks back on, Rufus having pulled his shirt back on, like a fully opened coat. He sat there peevishly until a thought hit him as he took in her now ashen visage.  Reeve sat her in a chair and they both took turns cleaning up properly and redressing in the bathroom.  Once they were ready, they escorted a weirded out, high aroused, _very nauseous_ Tifa back to her fiancé to be.

Rufus Shinra, ever the astute mind, knew that there would be another wedding…and soon in the ex-General's life. Taking it slow his ass.

Sephiroth took in Tifa's look and frowned a bit.  Tifa was sicker than she was putting on.  Somehow though she had just barfed her guts out, being around Sephiroth calmed her stomach down immediately.  The two being wallflowers, sat and watched the different dates dance on the floor.

The party was wrapping up, as the two grooms were in the middle of their first dance and only had eyes for each other.  Everyone had now gotten up that was coupled and began to dance alongside the grooms at this point.  Reno popped, locked, and dropped with Elena, both laughing through one particularly charged dance.

 Rude had even danced with his date, bending down for her to place a sweet kiss on the bald man’s cheek, causing him to blush, even with his dark glasses on. The biggest surprise was when a salsa song came on, Yuffie and Tseng hit the floor had absolutely blown it away.  If they were not liquid sex on the floor, Tifa reckoned she would never see it. Never to be upstaged and in the moment as well, Vincent and Genesis burned the floor down, also to a fast beat salsa. 

With all that had happened Tifa was on fire, hormonally.

From Tseng and Yuffie despite their height differences, melding, dipping, and seemingly pouring into each other to Vincent’s and Genesis’s hard, nuclear sex on the floor.

 Tifa tore her eyes away from the scene to look at Sephiroth who was blushing severely as well. Oh, he had saw something about his friends.  She bet it was what she'd experienced with Rufus and Reeve. She wanted to laugh at the face Sephiroth was making, a cross between despair and arousal. She would definitely get the details from the man later.

Tifa gently took Sephiroth's hand and pulled him over so she could talk in his ear over the music, knowing the man had superior hearing.  She whispered into the shell of his ear, that it was okay, that she'd just been scarred like him, walking into a very compromised situation.  She didn’t miss the body moving shudder that went down his back.  Now her interest was really piqued in exactly what he’s saw.

Whatever tension Sephiroth had in his shoulders relaxed. He'd thought that he heard Rufus Shinra screaming at the top of his lungs from somewhere, damn his sensitive hearing.

Sephiroth had felt…odd that he had not danced once with Tifa while all the other couples had. At this strange realization, he stood at the close of the faster paced song to the beginning of a slow paced song.

Now it was his turn to almost laugh at her guppy mouth look. He took her hand he took her to the dancefloor.  She was going to protest, knowing that she had two left feet. Tifa had allowed him to take her though against her instincts, knowing that she couldn't dance, Sephiroth though seemed sure of himself. He bent over and told her to follow his lead.

Follow his lead? Sephiroth knew how to slow dance?

At Tifa’s surprise still present on his face, he simply answered the question on her face.

“Being a General meant special galas and company setups.  One had to know this skill as other dignitaries and their _daughters_ had to remain entertained”, he said moving her arm and hand into place at his waist, his own arm snaking around her waist and her other hand clasp as they lost themselves to the music.

The dance floor had cleared for just those two and neither were aware.  They painted a beautiful picture moving around gracefully with Sephiroth's skills.  Even the grooms looked on at their mutual friends _._ Only when the song was over did they recognize that they'd been the only two people on the floor.

Sephiroth and Tifa took in the looks of awe, joy, and happiness for them. Sephiroth, despite wanting to, blushed deeply from being embarrassed yet again, though his face remained impassable. Tifa too had taken to rubbing against her other arm with her hand in a nervous gesture.

Once they shook their nerves, they both had decided to call it a night as they had seen their friends beginning their lives today, plus they both were super stimulated from the day's festivities.

Tifa kissed Vincent and Genesis on the cheek goodbye and Sephiroth gave Genesis a manly hug and shook Vincent's hand in good luck.

Genesis was a handful.

As they headed for the foyer towards outside, Rufus caught up to them which again, which caused Tifa to groan aloud. It was too soon to see the man, clothes or not. It would take time for that visual to leave her.

Rufus saw her look and heard her groan and disregarded it, knowing what she thought about.

“I would have you come by the WRO hospital to have a checkup and blood work on Monday.  You look sickly” Rufus said, trying not to laugh at what he really was trying to confirm.

Tifa made to object that she was fine, she just had a mild virus she couldn't seem to shake, when Sephiroth spoke for her.

“I will personally bring her to the appointment myself, thank you Rufus” he said calmly and with that Sephiroth took Tifa's hand and they swept out the doorway, neither seeing Rufus's smug smile as they left.

Sephiroth had to love Tifa to risk an actual hospital setting.

Once they had been safely in Sephiroth’s vehicle, Sephiroth uncustomarily laid his head to the steering wheel.

“Okay your first.  What happened?” Tifa said while laughing.

Sephiroth retold his tale in excruciating detail, since he had photogenic memory as they now traversed the road home.  Tifa was beet red at the end of his tale and more than a little flustered.  Trying to calm herself enough, though she knew it wouldn’t do any better, now that she gathered that Sephiroth more likely than not, was bisexual.  That made it worse as she regaled him of _her story._ She swore that as she told her story, the vehicle sped along more. About time they had made it to the home, they were both about to combust.

Sephiroth whipped the Hummer around, came to pluck Tifa from the front seat and she placed her arms around his neck automatically, legs following suit to latch around his waist.  He walked with a purpose to the front door as he and Tifa exchanged heated kisses, his arm around her back to support her as he placed his keys in the door.  Once inside, he walked in with her molesting the side of his neck with a rain of kisses and nips from her teeth, her breath ghosting over the moistened skin of his cheeks and face as she attacked his lips in earnest.  He kicked the door closed and his back thudded against the heavy wood of the front door as Tifa had taken his chiseled cheeks in her hands and devoured him.

Sephiroth growled at Tifa’s behavior, pushing off of the door and beginning to stalk to the master bedroom with an armful of Tifa writhing and panting so beautifully for him.  Once in the room, he tossed her slightly onto the bed, the cushioning proving to not jostle her too much as he began almost ripping out of his tuxedo to get to her. 

Tifa wanted to follow suit, and fast, to get out of the dress.  Before she could even get up on the bed, Sephiroth was on her in all his naked glory, flipping her onto her hands and knees.  He massaged her beautiful globes through the dress as the dangled slightly away from her body.  He knew by the way they moved under the material, they were bare and not bound by bra and quickly deduced that some of the foundation garments that Genesis had provided for her appeared to be missing.  He pulled back just long enough to slide the red accented zipper down the length of her spine, the dress sliding down over her shoulders and down her arms in a silken caress that had her shaking with need from all the stimuli.  Sephiroth then moved back towards the now bared skin of her back and slid the dress down over her hips to bare a very interesting and arousing scene.  There, along Tifa’s hips, was a black and red lace garter belt that hooked to what looked like lace topped stockings in the theme of the now absent dress and garter belt.  Tifa still had her high heels on as she was spread wider with one of Sephiroth’s knees and her arms lifted temporarily to remove the dress from under her.

She was flipped back over onto her back, her hair falling out of the carefully pinned curly coif to begin framing her face and head in a dark pool of sinful chocolatey curls as her pupils were blown wide, her nipples erect and her body’s limit of waiting at an end as now gossamer silver strands of Sephiroth's hair tickled and caressed her bosom and stomach.  Sephiroth’s hair had come loose from a hair tie that had held his lengths to heel.   The remaining snaked over his powerful shoulders as he glanced down at her as if he was the hungriest man in the world and Tifa was ambrosia.

He bent down to take one of her dusky nipples into his mouth while massaging the other and plucking occasionally at the other nipple, making it stand erect.

Tifa was besides herself.  She was so turned on and so ready, she voiced what she could with what little of her mind that wasn't hazy.

“Sephiroth…please” Tifa begged as she tried to covey to him what she needed, the pressure in her womb seemed unbearable as she was already on the edge of climaxing from all of the view of, talking of, and now touching, would lead to sexual conquest.

Sephiroth flared his nostrils as he took in Tifa’s amazing scent as it taunted and caressed the very air around him.  There was another, smaller ribbon of scent that mingled with her own in the air coming from her but he couldn’t be concerned with it, it all smelled divine.  With one last look at the now frustrated and highly aroused woman, Sephiroth buried himself into her.

Tifa had hoped Sephiroth would come to her she was more than ready for him and after her desperate plea, she began thinking maybe he was in the mood to be tease, that is until he’d tunneled right into her in all his blessed glory and her eyes flew wide, as did her mouth in a wordless cry as that lingering orgasm was no longer lingering anymore. 

Sephiroth squinted his eyes at the wildly fluttering Tifa.  It was magnificent but he had to stop and proceed no further, lest he make this venture a short one.  Once her waves of pleasure began to slightly ease, he began to move within her. 

Tifa scrabbled at his biceps by either side of her head, a sobbing moan coming out of her mouth as he’d settled into a solid rhythm on the tail of her climax, and therefore she prepared for a much sooner one than expected. 

Sephiroth drove into Tifa at a frantic pace. Today had left him so amazingly turned on that he could not even deal with the magnitude of emotions, so he settled into showing her with his body what he couldn’t convey.  Tifa cried out again at her second crest, but Sephiroth showed no signs of slowing down.  In fact, he began to lift her and wrapped his arms around her and _flipped_ with himself still within her and she was sunk onto the full girth of his manhood.  They were choppy for a few seconds trying to find a new rhythm, but quickly rebounded and found it.

 At this point Sephiroth was groaning aloud, his jade eyes had been blown wide, and he gently clenched and unclenched his hands on Tifa’s haunches as she rode him.  He knew it was coming by the familiar tightening in his gut.  All at once, he grabbed Tifa’s shoulders and in crossing his legs, began pounding into her.  He was still mindful of his full strength but soon enough, his strained eyes locked on hers as she breathed as if she would hyperventilate. Their gaze was broken when his eyes crossed and then rolled back and he came as she clamped down on him for the last time, her womanhood drenching him for all he was worth.  He fell back against the bed with a thud and breathed deeply as he felt like he had trained to his limit. 

Once he was able to open his eyes and slightly focus, he saw Tifa doing the same but she seemed to look a little…green about her countenance.  Before he could open his mouth to ask her if he had hurt her in any way, she threw up squarely on his chest.

After Sephiroth had shot up in alarm, not at her vomiting on his chest though he would be honest, it was not what he had expected as a response, he was worried.

He’d carried her to the shower and cleaned them both up as Tifa was hideously embarrassed.  How or why in the hell had she barfed on her lover after the most amazing, non-convoluted sex in the history of ever?

After being dried off and dressed in one of her gowns, she sat at the end of the bed with her face covered in shame. Sephiroth had already placed clean linens back on the bed and sat by her, assuring her that though it was shocking for both of them, there was no harm done and that he still cared for her a great deal.

Tifa had a stray thought at this second spell of vomiting, but again put it off based on _who_ she was being intimate with.  She finally relaxed into the bed and covers with a content and cuddling Sephiroth.

Monday had come quickly it seemed, or maybe only the couple felt that way for different reasons of course.  Sephiroth still had his aversions to hospitals and clinics due to the smell and the similarities of the lab but did go with Tifa to the doctor’s appointment. Even going with her into the doctor's office, though he wanted to scream and run right through the wall if it meant freedom for him, but he deferred back to why they were there and this somewhat mollified his internal terror.

Tifa on the other hand, had had several bouts of nausea and sense sensitivity.  On Sunday morning, Sephiroth had made breakfast for the two of them: eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and jam.  The sight of the breakfast had made her mouth water in a good way, but her nose smelled the previously dulled bacon fat that he melted on frying and the sausage oils, and she had turned and ran out the room, almost running into the corner of the wall trying to run away- _from the stench._

The doctor came back into the room and greeted the couple with a shake of hands and a cheerful smile on his face.

“Well I know what is causing your aliments, and in 9 months you will as well” the man cheerfully said as Tifa’s face fell and Sephiroth’s took on confusion, his naivety showing again.

“What disease would have her suffering so, and what is a proper treatment plan?” Sephiroth said seriously at the man, causing the man’s smile to fall at the man’s question, questioning the man’s sanity. 

‘Was he really this sheltered’ the doctor mused as Tifa swiped at the air and then slapping Sephiroth in the shoulder.  Sephiroth focused on the wide eyes of Tifa.

“I…I thought you were sterile, because of you know, your makeup” Tifa said trailing away, which raised alarms in Sephiroth’s mind immediately.

“Tifa, what disease are we _exactly_ talking about?” Sephiroth as softly and quietly, his heart now thumping hard in his chest.

“The…the kind when babies are the end result?” Tifa said with a small smile on her lips and Sephiroth’s eyes widen comically.

The doctor laughed internally at the banter between the two, taking it all in.

“She is pregnant…with my children? How did that happen?” Sephiroth stated pinning his unnerving stare on the doctor as he worked it all out and then blushed almost imperceptivity at his last question, while the doctor's already incredulous expression seemed to want to leap off his face.

Tifa just took his hand and gave it a squeeze as if to say 'I'll show you later' and shot him a look of amusement.

“Yes, I surmise about 6 weeks or so” the doctor confirmed.

Sephiroth did the quick mental mathematics.  Tifa had conceived on their first time in the Hummer.  His eyebrows were at his hairline in shock and awe.  Sephiroth did something that neither the doctor or Tifa could have expected: he snorted in trying to block the laughter that wanted to come out and he quickly squashed it, putting a fist in front of his mouth, clearing his throat, his brows coming down and him glancing away for a moment to contain his merriment.

“Sephiroth, are you okay?” Tifa inquired at the man’s bizarre behavior.

“Yes, yes I am fine.  I was just shocked, but not in a bad way.  Yes, I am…ecstatic” he said though his face had schooled back to seriousness, confusing the doctor as to whether the man knew the word’s meaning.  Tifa knew though.  Sephiroth didn’t say anything he didn’t mean and more often than not, that he was just handling his emotions the only way he knew when faced with a stranger.

The doctor looked on at the Sephiroth’s stony face and piercing eyes and glanced away to see the young woman holding one of the ex-General’s hands and smiling from ear to ear.  The doctor was so confused right now.  He stated they were free to go and he was so happy they did.  As soon as the doctor knew that they had completely left, he went to his office and made a call.

“What were your findings?” said the voice, straight to the point on the other end.

“She is expecting.  And it looks to be she may be with multiples since she looks much larger for her along time” the doctor said. 

“That is good news now isn’t it?  Thank you doctor for your services” the voice said, a tinkling of something could be heard.  Before the call disconnected, the voice stated clearly, “when you are done Reeve, pay up, I win” and the call disconnected.

Both Tifa and Sephiroth looked slightly dazed as they walked back to the Hummer and he opened the door for her and she sat there in a dizzying array of emotions: from excitement, to sheer happiness to slight nervousness about Sephiroth's reaction to everything. She had promised him to take their relationship slow. He got in himself and then reached into the glovebox.

"Sephiroth, I know that this is probably strange for you. I didn't mean for it to happen so soon" she said and he stopped her by putting his hand on her stomach.

"I'm fine with it, I'm looking forward to it in fact. But I don't want to have a child born out of wedlock, I actually got you this about a week ago and wasn't sure when to give it to you. I'm not good at being romantic, but I do love you and want to marry me. Will you marry me?" He asked her almost shyly as he pulled out a ring box and opened it; inside sat a black diamond oval engagement ring, surrounded by diamond chips and in a platinum setting.  He looked alarmed when she burst into tears.

"But you didn't know I was pregnant. Why did you buy me a ring? It's so beautiful" She sobbed.

His eyebrows shot up in confusion "because I want to marry you, not that your being pregnant isn't a catalyst towards this. I know that you wanted to take things slow because of my inexperience, but I don't see the point because I want you to be mine in every way possible. I hope that doesn't sound selfish. We are together, we now are having a child. I'm sorry Tifa but taking things slow doesn't seem to work for us. It's like we have been accelerating since we first met. What do you say?" He asked her. "Do you want me to get on one knee?" He offered with a frown that made him look positively adorable in her mind.

"No" she said and his face fell, "No, I mean I don't need you to get down on one knee; I mean yes, yes, yes...." she said as he put it on her ring finger, peppering kisses everywhere she could reach on his face with each yes and then drew him into a deep, deep kiss.

She kept on kissing him over and over again until he had to firmly, but gently push her back, breathing heavily. He peeled out of the parking lot like a race car driver in his need to get her home, then remembered about his expecting-even more precious cargo and slowed down to speeds that would have made Mrs. Campbell in her dainty car seem like a speed demon in comparison.

Tifa only laughed and told him to hurry the fuck up _now_.

"Although I was surprised how spacious the Hummer was when we first made love, I wouldn't care celebrate our engagement here and in the parking lot of a hospital. You will just have to wait until we get home" he admonished the excitedly glowing Tifa in a stern tone of voice, giving her a neutral look that failed to hide the fact that he was ecstatic too.

Back in Rufus Shinra’s office, the man sat at his desk putting the phone down on the receiver, his glass of bourbon shifting as he tried not to move much, his face flushed and skin perspiring.  Rufus all at once went still and grit his teeth and then moaned out his euphoria, as his hand on the tumbler cup turned snow white in his grasp then slackened.  Rufus moved back from his desk and Reeve popped up from under the huge desk wiping his mouth stating “what but I just got you a gift?”

Rufus looked up deviously at the man and said “instead of your home in Costa de Sol, how about I just top you?”

Reeve took a shuddering breath and gulped.

Rufus indeed had been right for less than a month to the day and another visit to the doctor’s confirming _quadruplets,_ Tifa came to his office and did all of the same in one time: offered her resignation, confirmed the obvious that she was definitely pregnant and will multiples, and offered Rufus a wedding invitation. 

He didn’t accept her resignation stating she was too good at what she did, to which she snorted and cursed a little under her breath stating “that was an understated statement of the year”, since her last case was the cause of her situation though there was no real heat to her voice.

He heard her clearly, just left her in her thoughts and offered her extended maternity leave and did accept her invitation to the wedding for himself- _and Reeve._ Ah, she hadn’t forgot. Like he had said: majestic as fuck.

As she left the office, he sat back in his chair and simply stated:  It’s good to be me.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hoped you enjoyed our little story. If so, please feel free to kudos, comment, or bookmark. Thank you!


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